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THE 


INTELLECTUAL OBSERYV Eh: 


REVIEW OF NATURAL HISTORY, 


MICROSCOPIC RESEARCH, 


AND 


RECREATIVE SCIENCE, 


VOLUME IL. 


ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES IN COLOURS AND TINTS, AND NUMEROUS 
ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 


ONL DFOUN 


GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS§, 
PATERNOSTER ROW. 


syn 
* MDCCCLEIII. 


HARRILD, eile, LONDON. 
é 


CONTENTS 


—————->- — 
RAGE 
RIBBAND FIsHes oF THE GENUS GyMNETRUS. By JonaTHsN Covcn, 
BLS. With a Coloured Plate and other Illustrations .........ccccceeeeees it 
Moss Parasires. By tHe Rev. Mines JosrppuH Berxeney, M. mM H.L.S. 
Laie LULOSURAMIOIOS. “Seb eabeoneucedeessecoudonae sO Nhe RE AB SE died TR attabis 8 
Is THE GIRAFFE PROVIDED WITH MORE THAN “Two Horns ? By T. 
SPENCER CopgonD, M.D., F.L.S. With a Tinted Plate ........s000c000 12 
MINSTRELS OF THE SUMMER. By Surrtpy HIBBERD .................. ae 18 
Insrcts Insurious to tar Erm. By H. Norn Humpureys. With 
Illustrations .. ce pF URSELF I AN a at OR ace a a e, L) S 
Star Finpina. With an Auction CRER SS BIA ten Wns ae We tNid 2 ED bate Sache ate 
DE TA RIVE ON THE AURORA BOREALIS ..........0.ccecceeeeees a dashes 38 
Curious InLusTRATION OF VEGETABLE MorpPHonoay. “BY “ROBERT 
GausBY. W2th an Illustration............ RA a ine RSE Ne Os RE ARS Soa ue eae 
Tar New Mrran THALLIUM ........... Peer an sentad TERR ROE IE CE OC RHE ERT SCT CRD ter acs 33 
PCED EK OMAR) EIATEOS, 2c napysepin mee, one deciseernce ail Jecede betas Sane See oftltireiieaiciearehO 
MeEtEoROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT THE Kuw Opsreryatory. By C. 
COSIVANN TEENS Ne Me hati SAQA or OL IU fa a hay all RET PRA AU SE Ae Bia TARY Te 46, 292 
TRANSIT OF THE SHADOW OF Vr ‘AN— DOUBLE STars—THE Moon—Occvt- 
TATIONS. By THe Rey. T. W. Weep, F.R.A.S. With an Illustration. 52 
Birps or Paravise. By T.W. Woon, F.Z.8. With a Coloured Plate ... 69 
A DrepGing Excursion. By D. WALKER, IVERSEN STE oS ROS ae Se aoe eesti} 
Tuer SUNFISH as A Hosr. By T. Spencer CopBoxp, M. D., IMIS soc cacace 82 
Honty: 17s Origin anp ADULTERATION. By W. W. SroppaRr SEA a RS) G) 
ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATION OF ANIMALS ........00.00:- HEL SBN ETA aR MANA R ER RANE 95 
CHEMICAL MANUFACTURES AS JELUSTRATED IN THE EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
By J. W. M°GauLevy......... SEY ae Baa aR PEEL CHAR AR ARR oNE CeaSnereann . 208 
Taste IN ART Span ite ately “ia odecenie Hak: 
Poisonous CATERPILLARS. By iH. ‘Nor “HUMPHREYS. ‘With TOES. 124 
NEw PROCESS OF VINEGAR MAKING........ccccecsceeces ees HS aula en a un a 1 
OPprposirion oF Mars OccULTATIONS— Tan ComrtT. By 
THE Rey. T. W. Wess, F.R.AS....... a rear tbater Gay ae Becton aia Sanne 
Hypravuiic Intusions. By W. B. TeGetMErER. With Tine nons 140 
A SumMMER AFTTRNOON BY THE SEA. Tue Tomorrreris. By Puinir 
H. Gosst, F.R.S. With a Tinted Plate....... Bashar sluincidaenontes ert Mean 149 
PHOTOGRAPHIC DELINEATIONS OF Microscopic OBJECiS. “By GrorGE 
SwpRany, MRICS. ......... SS eRe evan Tae UUs ee A Re Se Bel EIR OMe cae KS fo. 
ZOOLOGY OF THE INTERNATIONAL PXHIBITION ROS Sa SRB TIN ee Ne meetin soterrie NS pies oo 160 
INFLUENCE OF Mass oN THE PRODUCTION OF INFUSORIA. By “HENRY 
SPACES STA CROHNS Sa ual la GURU Abn Vad LAL ee ere atest Auk) 
Devin Fish oF JAMAICA. By THE Hon. RICHARD iseentt With illustrations. 167 
On an InscriBED Roman Tine Recenriy Founp IN LEICESTER. BY 
THomAS Wricut, F.S.A. With an Illustration ............ AU Stantnoeaned uae A 
ORGANIZATION AND LIFE ...,.......... SRE Naa Bs Bae HEA SPAN sdssiueaekenann Se 
History OF THE SALMON , Ai eee ROAR AS SE AC i U . 188 
THE Hum AND ITs INsEcT ENEMIES. By SHIRLEY HIBBERD.. Ga Neal npyatied 1 8 
SPIRANTHES AUTUMNALIS, NEoTTra SrPiratis, on Lapres’ Trusses. BY 
ANE OMAR KE Habe LEUsSEnateonsy, Aes eee eee Sdaeeh DOD 
Comet il., 1862. By roz Rev. T. W. Wesp, F.R.A. ‘8. With Illustrations. 188 


OBSERVATIONS ON ComET II., 1862. By tHr Hon. Mrs. Warp. Witha 
Coloured Plate and other Illustrations......... 


Sete e hee e eee ee teresa ese eedeer ene 


IV Contents. 


PAGE 
APPEARANCE OF ComET II. at Paris. Nore From M. OCHACORNAC......... 220 
APPLICATION OF DIALYSIS TO THE PRESERVATION OF BUILDING STONES ... 224 
Puysania Prnacica (THE Portua@urs—E Man-or-War). By H. Noru 
AUMPHREYSS | Wath Coloured ELaten eee ee eee eee ees 233 
Hints to BEGINNERS WITH THE Microscorr. By T. RyMER JONES, 
E19) 2 > ERCP PTS pte RUE NE Ee sO A AUIS idee aoc Goo 243 
Tur Funeus Foor or Inpia. By tHE Rey. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S. ; 
Pathe: TUSEr GEO ns st is iio dlarsee eee SOUR Noah eS Ee 248 
On THE Avrora Borzatis. By Davip Waker, M.D., F.LS. ............ 258 
IPTV CIGAR) ON SPE CURR UM PAINAUDY. GTS en ete lense ater reece ce eee Eee ee ee nee ER eEEe 265 
RESTING Ea@a@s, oR, STATOBLASTS OF A PLUMATELLA. By Hinry J. Snack, 
¥B.G.S. With a Coloured Plater vie ee dock ool code ice ee 271 


PIcTET ON THE MeEtTHop oF DETERMINING THE AGE OF Fossrn Groups ... 275 
Fosstt HUMAN SKELETON FROM GUADALOUPE. ByS. P. WoopWARD, F.G.S. 280 


TEEN PEE DEEP SAW. pl eancne bord aces ieee ao ake ena cae eeemeenes 284: 
MicRoscoric WRITING, ENGRAVING, AND PRINTING ...,...c0..:..ccceceseceses 298 
DovUBLE STARS—OccULTATIONS—THE HARTH IN OPPOSITION. By THE REV. 

ATW: Wi BBY SBIR AR See sae Ur ise ieee isang ty ie aaa il Se, rae 299, 370 
FEATHERED FossIL FROM THE LITHOGRAPHIC LIMESTONE OF SOLENHOFEN. 

By Henry Woopwarp, F.Z.8. With a Coloured Plate. .......c...000+ 313 
ORTGINGOR. ENRUSORTAL Glee each s sbi uieseeleciilc ee tee Ok ee eee Dae eee 320 
THe Wuie-worm. By T.Spencer Copsorp, M.D., “ELS. With a Tinted 

L211 a RR HO eae er RR Anne PURSUE GC ss enon Sad 000 825 


ASPECTS OF NATURE IN SOUTHERN PERU. By WittiamM Borranrt, F.R.G.S. 331 
SUBMARINE ARCHITECTURE. By Sarrtey Hipperp. With an Lilustration. 339 


EFFECTS OF HascuiscH on M. St. Lucca............... aaleiaae his ea eT aero 346 
CARPENTER ON LEE METCROSCOP EME er are eee eee ene Ree EEE een 348 
1 GVAGKH ap mone WONpwe NaN Op OVE) INGOIE ABN, |) 444 noooassododedanooneacodoaaccodoacooDdpnencodees 253 
LrrcH-Lort. By THe Rey. W. Hovenuron, M.A., F.LS.. eo oes 


STRUCTURE AND HapiTs OF Puysatra. By G. C. WALLICH, MM. By, aon inet isn 362 
Lamont’s New THEORY OF ATMOSPHERIC VAPOUR. By ALEXANDER 8. 


TERR SCH EL Hea wees ee tate ea eee opis eee dee sane aUR ea cae aE 368 
HABITS OF THE AvE-AYE. By W. B. TEGETMEIER.........-.ccecccsccecseeceess 379 
CoMETS—AN ACCOUNT OF ALL THE COMETS WHOSE ORBITS HAVE NOT BEEN 

CancuuATED.) Bye GaCHAMBERG: tea ke ee Create nara ee ceeeet rene 380 
Fret oF Insects. By L. Lane Cuarke. With a Tinted Plate a) a aa 393 
Economic Propuction oF ARTIFICIAL Heat. By J. W. M‘GAULEY...... 398 
QUETELET ON THEW LHOTRICIMY OF) MEHEATR 2). ace. ckuseeioceeet en cesecerontene 408 


THE SeA Lamprey. By JonatHan Coucn, F.L.S. With a Coloured Plate 411 - 
MAGNIFICENT METEOR SEEN ON THE 277TH oF NovemBER, 1862. By EH. J. 


OWE, TSR ALS S HIE eee kee delete ta aT ie ARSE IE era ee ee 422 
Tue HYE anD THE Microscorr. By Henry J. Snack, F.GS. ............00 427 
EXPERIENCES OF HascuiscH. By SurrLeEy HIBBERD...... .....sceeceeeseeeees 435 
Fuyine LizarDs oF THE SECONDARY Rocxs. By Henry Woopwarp, 
RZES 3) abe LUST ALONS) yin CRE ee ee ERE Eee Tee eT eee 443. 
' PeRvVIAN Bark TREES AND THEIR TRANSPLANTATION. By BERTHOLD 
SHE MANN, AES GH ss Gr Siar eal eracislo croton uistoor oak acehiea se orm st aaa seat ee ee 452, 
Asn Miler,  Isswansnny IRwohye AY WAYS \WVaniiey THoI Wash ppooneouapdadnoonobodnSDono one 461 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES ............ceceeesseseees 60, 225, 305, 384, 465 
GLEANINGS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL WXHIBITION ........c0cccoecseces 64, 143, 226 


USHIVO S$ S{Ue_ 


THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 


AUGUST, 1862. 


RIBBAND FISHES OF THE GENUS GYMNETRUS. 
BY JONATHAN COUCH, F.L.S. 


Tue habits of that family of Ribband or Band fishes called Gym- 
netrus are so little known that their history for the most part, 
is confined to the knowledge of the places where they have been 
taken, and the circumstances attending the capture. Yet there 
is reason to believe that they are widely distributed in the Ocean; 
for while the greater number of instances in which they have 
been obtained have been in the north of Hurope, one at least 
is believed to have occurred in the Hast Indies, one in New 
Zealand, and another among the islands of Bermuda, of the 
particulars of which we intend to give a more minute account. 
The earliest reference we have of a fish of this kind as being 
obtained in Britain, is quoted from the Annual Register by 
Albany Hancock, Esq. and Dr. Embleton, as having occurred 
about the year 1759; but it was not described by any scientific 
naturalist, and we might have entertained doubts concerning 
the species, and even the genus, but for the mention of a 
circumstance attending it which has since accompanied the 
capture of every example, and which, therefore, while it forms 
a character, permits a doubt to continue with regard to the 
exact form of some of its parts. It became easily broken 
and mutilated when handled, as was the case also with the 
next specimen of which we have any account. This was 
left, dead by the tide near the little town of Newlyn, close to 
Penzance in Cornwall, in February 1788; the date of which 
is to be particularly noted, since there appear to have been 
repeated mistakes concerning it. The occurrence of this 
example, which was then believed to have been its earliest 
instance in Britain, excited considerable attention at the time; 
‘and of it I possess a coloured drawing, which was presented to 
me by Mr. Chirgwin, near whose house the fish was found, and 
who expressed his’ belief that 1t was the authentic original from 
which all the other figures that have been circulated were copied. 
VOL. II.—NO. I. B 


2 Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus. 


This last circumstance must be a mistake, as we shall see; but 
in itself his figure is a fair representation of the actual appear- 
ance of the specimen as it then existed, with, perhaps, the 
exception that the jaws are unnaturally drawn out; and at the 


li 


bottom of the drawing is the following inscription :—“ This is 
a drawing of a fish that came on shore at Newlyn on Saturday 
the 23rd of February, 1788. Its length without the tail (which 


it wanted) was 8} feet, its extreme breadth 103 inches, and its 
thickness but 22 inches—M. Wright fect.” The artist has 
supplied the deficiency of a tail by something which bears a 
resemblance to the same part in the common sea-bream—but 


Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gynmetrus. 3 


without actually joming it to the body; and a deficiency also 
occurs at the head, where the crest or plume is represented by 
two long rays only that are bent forward, and each one tipped 
with a membranous expansion not much unlike the termination 
of a peacock’s feather, but of a red colour, as are all the fins, 
The ventral fins are formed, each of a single ray, with its fan- 
like expansion, and reaching to about the middle of the body. 
The acknowledged imperfection of portions of this fish appears 
to have been deemed a sufficient warrant for the exercise of the 
imagination in persons who had not seen the original, but who 
undertook to form a likeness according to what they supposed 
it ought to be. Such must have been the case as regards a 
figure in the possession of the late William Rashleigh, Hsq., 
F.R.S., etc., by whom I was permitted to take a copy of it; 
and which requires to be particularly noticed, as it was that 
from which Mr. Yarrell’s figure was derived in the first and 
second edition of his History of British Fishes. In this case, 
the two rays which naturally rise from the forehead, and are so 
represented in Mr. Chirewin’s figure, are transferred to the 
throat, and thus the ventral fins are represented with double 
their usual number of rays, a mistake which is rectified in the 
last edition of Mr. Yarrell’s work. 

That Mr. Chirewin, as above referred to, was in error when 
he supposed that no other drawing but his own was taken from 
the actual specimen at Newlyn appears from the fact that there 
exists in the library of the British Museum, bound up in a quarto 
' copy of Pennant’s work on the Natural History England, for- 
merly in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, a figure of this 
same fish, but which differs im several particulars from Mr. 
Chirgwin’s drawimg. In this the jaws are reduced to their 
proper position, but the rays on the top of the head are without 
their membranous expansion, and the ventral fins are broken 
short, which defects appear to be sufficient proofs that the 
figures im Pennant’s volume were really copied from nature, 
but somewhat later than that of Mr. Chirgwin. The remarkable 
habilty to injury in this fish, from rough handling, will explain 
the difference thus observed. Block’s great work on fishes con- 
tains a hkeness of what that author supposed to have been this. 
Cornish fish, but his description of it appears to be scarcely 
intelhgible. Some account of it, with a figure, was sent to him 
by Mr. John Hawkins, who had travelled on the Continent as a. 
naturalist, but chiefly in pursuit of botany ; but this gentleman 
appears to have sent also asmall specimen of what both of them 
supposed to be the same species, but which had been taken in the 
Hast Indies, and what the Prussian naturalist is able to say on 
the subject is derived from a combination of these distinct and 
even diverse materials, with some confusion perhaps arismg 


4, hibband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus. 


from not having well understood the information afforded by 
his Cornish friend. A claim has been made for two other ex- 
amples of this fish as having also been taken in Cornwall—one 
in the year 1791, and the other in 1796; but after close inquiry 
I have found no ground for altering the belief that such was not 
the fact m either case; and in the last named instance it seems 
probable that the capture of Banks’s oarfish at Filey Bay in 
Yorkshire, at that date, has led to the mistake ; an opinion also 
countenanced by Dr. J. H. Gray of the British Museum, who 
communicated a satisfactory paper on this subject to the 
Zoological Society. As the published account of this last- 
named specimen gives a particular description of its appearance, 
we extract it more at large. It was thirteen feet and a half in 
length, rather more than a foot in depth, and not more than 
three inches in thickness. The skin was smooth and of a silver 
hue, it had no tail, and its fins were the colour of those of the 
roach or perch. The following notes are added from a private 
hand :—‘“‘'The head seven inches long; eye, one inch and three- 
eighths in diameter; no scales, but very small protuberances, 
silvered over like the surface of a herring. These run the whole 
length in stripes, alternate with others that are bare and of a 
hight colour. The dorsal fin runs the whole way from the head 
to the other end, and is red like that of a roach or perch: 
branchial rays six; dorsal fin with two hundred and ninety, 
and thirteen rays; pectoral fin with twelve, ventral one; no 
anal; no teeth, a soft tongue; the face and inside of the mouth 
black; anus, four feet nine inches from the head; iris a silver 
white.” 

Another example of this fish, which attracted much atten- 
tion, was caught by some fishermen at Cullercoats in Yorkshire 
on the 26th of March, 1849, and fortunately came into the 
hands of Mr. Hancock and Dr. Embleton, who published a 
particular account of it in the Annals and Magazine of Natural 
History for July in that year. The fish was first seen at about 
six miles from land in water of the depth of from twenty to 
thirty fathoms. When first seen it was lying on its side on the 
surface, but as the fishermen approached it it became erect and 
came towards them with a gentle lateral undulating motion, 
with its crest and a small portion of its head above water. 
When struck with a staff it made off with a vigorous and ver- 
tical undulating motion, and quickly disappeared. In a short 
time it again came within reach, lymg on its side, but when 
laid hold of with a hook it tore itself away, but was lifted imto 
the boat at last by two young men placing their arms round it. 
It lived for some time after being taken on board, but there 
cannot be a doubt that when discovered it was in dying 
circumstances; and in every instance yet known it is clear 


Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymmnetrus. 5) 


that these fish have been driven from their usual haunts by 
disease, these haunts beimg in some of the deeper and more 
secluded caverns of the ocean, beyond the reach of human 
sight. In shallower water, and with less protection from the 
rage of storm, their fragile structure would expose them per- 
petually to destruction; for in the present instance the rude 
handling of rough visitors was found to have injured it greatly, 
in addition to what it had undergone in its immediate capture. 

The length of this fish was twelve feet three mches, the 
greatest depth eleven inches and a quarter; the body exceed- 
ingly compressed; in its general form resembling a double- 
edged sword-blade; four longitudinal flattened ridges, each 
rather more than an inch broad, extended from head to tail 
above the lateral line, the uppermost, which was the longest, 
running forward almost to the eye. The dorsal fin extended 
from immediately behind the upper and posterior end of the 
curved frontal profile to within three inches of the tail. The 
anterior part of this fin was more prominent than the rest, with 
twelve rays, which, when the fish was taken, are said to have 
been twelve or fourteen inches in length, and each furnished 
with a membranous expansion on its posterior edge, increasing 
“in width upwards, something like a peacock’s feather. The 
first ray was a rather strong spine arising within the frontal 
curve ; the three next very slender, and much closer together 
than the rest; the next equally slender with the preceding, 
but rather further apart; the three or four after this nearly as 
strong as the first, while the rest diminished in strength and 
length, and became uniform with the more level rays of the 
dorsal fin. Exclusive of the crest, there were two hundred and 
sixty-eight rays in the dorsal fin. The fishermen said that this fin 
was without colour when caught, but it had a red tinge along 
the border when examined by the gentlemen who described it. 
Hach ventral fin had a very strong spine, with a limited motion, 
and at first their colour was a bright red. It will be observed 
that the number of rays in the dorsal fin differed rather con- 
siderably from those which were counted in the example 
obtained in Filey Bay ; but this variation offers no difficulty in 
regard to the sameness of the species, since it is generally 
found that where the fin- -rays in fishes are very numerous, they. 
are rarely alike in number in different individuals. - It is only 
when they are few that their number affords a character to be 
depended on. 

This fish, obtained at Cullercoats, of sesh we have given 
a very much abridged description, was conveyed to London 
for the purpose of being exhibited ; and it was there that, in 
company with Mr. Yarrell, I was favoured with a private 
examination of it; by which opportunity I was enabled to 


6 Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus. 


obtain the figure which accompanies this paper, and some 
notes which will enable us the better to understand some 
further particulars of its peculiarities. It is to be observed that 
the figure given in Sir John Richardson’s (second) supplement 
to Mr. Yarrell’s History of British Fishes, is represented, 
especially as regards the crest or plume on the top of the head, 
as itis said to have been seen at first by the fishermen, and 
not as when it was examined by the gentlemen who described 
it; but we prefer to represent it as it actually appeared when 
examined by ourselves in London. 

On comparing the fish as exhibited with the figures repre- 
sented in the great work on fishes by Cuvier, an adequate 
likeness did not show itself in any of them. The mouth ap- 
peared arched above, the mystache conspicuous, angle of the 
mouth depressed. The front ray of the fin on the forhead 
admitted of very little motion, but projected firmly forward ; 
but this and all behind it were broken short, and no one of the 
fishermen who were present at this examination would affirm 
that the rays were at first bordered by a membrane through 
their whole length. A membrane united the rays for less than 
half their length, but beyond this it seemed uncertain. By 
joining the piece of the pectoral fin that had been broken off, 
this fin was shown to have the first rays longest, and conse- 
quently that it tapered towards the extremity. The tail portion 
of the body was remarkable, and therefore has required to be 
exhibited separately. The dorsal fin ended a very little short 
of it; and from thence the outline sloped downward, the lower 
portion forming an angle two or three inches behind a perpen- 
dicular line drawn from the upper. ‘The exact internal struc- 
ture of this part could scarcely be known without dissection ; 
but from a fixed point of bone above there passed a firm bony 
curve, with the concavity towards the body, to the fixed pomt 
below; and from one to the other was stretched a thin sub- 
stance resembling membrane, which appeared to represent 
something that might act as a fin, at least for the purpose of 
guiding or assisting its progress. A curiosity in the inward 
structure of this fish was observed in the convolution of the 
intestine, which passed backward close to the end of the body, 
and then returned to the vent that was much nearer to the 
head. 

It is clear that this fish is an inhabitant of the northern seas, 
where it grows to a greater length than we have already men- 
tioned ; for since the date given above an example was obtained 
about five miles north of Wick, in Scotland, that measured more 
sixteen fect. But there is much difference of opinion among 
naturalists as regards the distinction of species of several of the 
examples which have been met with. Dr. J. H. Gray has ex- 


Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus. CG 


pressed his belief, “‘ from a comparison of the various descrip- 
tions and figures given by English observers and those given 
by Ascanius, Brunnich, and Lindroth, that there is only a 
single species yet found in the North Sea, and that this species 
comes as far south as the coast of Cornwall;’’? while, on the 
other hand, Dr: Gunther, who is engaged in arranging the 
fishes preserved in the British Museum, expresses his opinion 
that five separate species have been found in the seas of Hurope. 
Without attempting to decide where doctors differ so widely, 
J will add an account of a fish which may be of the same species, 
and certainly is of the same genus, which ran itself on shore on 
Hamilton Island, one of the Bermudan group, and of which, 
besides the notes published in the Zoologist for 1860, I was 
furnished with pen-and-ink sketches and measurements taken 
at the time by an officer of the royal navy. The contradictions 
whick appear in the descriptions of this example by gentlemen 
who cannot be suspected of a wish to deceive, will afford a 
lesson how far we should implicitly accept the information con- 
veyed by those who possess no knowledge in the science of 
natural history. This unfortunate fish encountered the usual 
fate of its race in suffering violence sufficient to destroy its 
symmetry, even at the first; the fears of its captors bemg 
excited by the belief that they had met with a sample of the 
far-famed serpent of the ocean, the oneae of which has been 
so strenuously denied. 

The effect may be imagined when we are peered that this 
supposed reptile was attacked with large forks, which were 
lymg near at hand, for collecting sea-weed, by ‘which it was 
“‘unfortunately much mauled” before it was secured. Its 
length was sixteen feet seven inches, and the general propor- 
tions much like those of Banks’s oarfish, which the profile of 
the head also much resembles. ‘The crest, or plume on the 
head is, in an American figure, given in Harper’s Weekly Paper, 
represented as separate from the more level dorsal, but in others 
it is not so; and, says Captain Hawtaigne, in the Zoologist, 
this crest was formed of a series of eight lone thin spines of 
a bright red colour, which followed each other at about the 
interval of an inch: the longest ray, which was in the middle, 
was two feet seven inches long, and flattened at the end like 
the blade of an oar. Mr. Jones, however, who more closely 
examined this fish, and better understood its nature, informs 
us that the number of rays in this crest was “ten or eleven, 
from two to three feet in extent.’”? And my other account 
represents them as exactly ten, the longest three feet in length, 
and united by a membrane for more than half their length. In 
the American figure the dorsal fin runs to near the extremity 
of the body, of a bright scarlet colour, the pectoral much 


8 Moss Parasites. 


injured, but with twelve rays. In all these descriptions there 
is nothing to lead us to suppose that this example was other 
than the usually described Banks’s oarfish, except that Mr. 
Jones says that what remained of the right ventral fin was 
“composed of two consistent bony rays,’ which would be 
decisive of an hitherto unknown species, and even of an. aber- 
rant genus. A sketch referred to gives only a single ray to 
this fin, but in the American drawing there is the appearance 
of two. It is probable, however, that neither of these un- 
scientific persons were aware of the interest attached to the 
question whether these rays were one or two, and until this is 
settled the exact nature of this fish must remain uncertain. 


MOSS PARASITES, 
BY THE REV. MILES JOSEPH BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S, 


ALMOST every one is acquainted with the rhymes which speak 
of the parasite upon parasite with which some members of the 
insect world are infested, and a similar legend would equally 
hold good with respect to other branches of the animal kingdom. 
Nor are vegetables less subject to become the prey of other 
vegetables. The mistletoe and broomrape, after they have done 
their worst by their victims, are in their turn infested with 
fungi, and the fungi themselves are obliged to submit to the 
attacks of other more minute species, though not exactly ad 
infinitum. Hven lichensin their more arid form, subject as they 
are at times to months of drought and the direct rays of a 
burning sun, are not without their peculiar parasites, constituted 
to endure the same abrupt changes from continued damp to 
almost perfect dryness as themselves. Nor are the vascular 
cryptogams, such as ferns, mosses, and liverworts without their 
own especial enemies, though these are fewer in number per- 
haps than in other organized beings. Mosses, for example, 
besides affording a nidus for the development of such fungi as 
the pretty scarlet Peziza axillaris, which perhaps is only a false 
parasite, have one or two species which are developed in their 
substance, as Septoria thecicola, Berk. and Broome, and Spheria 
envperigonia, Auerswald. ‘The former of these was found on 
the ripe capsules of Polytrichwm piliferum at Aberdeen, by Dr. 
Dickie, and the latter in Germany by Herr Auerswald, on the 
rose-like male inflorescence of Polytrichum commune, specimens 
of which are published by Rabenhorst in his German Fungi. 
Different as they are in structure, as will appear from the 
accompanying figures, there is good reason to believe that they 


Moss Parasites. 9 


are merely different conditions of one and the same species, for 
nothing is more common than for fungi to exhibit two forms of 
fruit on the same or on different plants, after the fashion of 


Fia. 1.—Septoria thecicola, Via. 2.—Spheria emperigonia, 
Berk. and Broome. Auerswald. 

a. Perithecia, magnified. a. Asci, magnified. 

&. Spores, highly magnified. b. Spores, highly magnified. 


monoicous or dioicous Phoenogams, a fact long since suspected 
by Fries, and now proved to demonstration by the brothers 
Tulasne. 

Besides these pigmies of the vegetable kindom there are 
some higher Fungi peculiar to mosses, or indifferent as to their 
nutriment, whose spawn or mycelium runs over their leaves and 
quickly effects their destruction. 

For example, nothing is more common than to find mossy. 
sticks im our woods covered with delicate snow-white patches 
consisting of threads far more slender than those of a spider’s- 
web. ‘These patches soon extend to the mosses, which pre- 
sently become discoloured, and ultimately fade altogether. This 
enemy when fully developed is found to be Corticiwin arach- 
noideum, one of those fungi, which at a later period form little 
solid pellets which live through the winter, and are ready on 
returning spring to attack the tender shoots of another year’s 
growth. 

Another fungus still more destructive to mosses can scarcely 
have escaped the notice of those who are accustomed to greet 
Nature in all her phases. In calcareous districts, especially the 
Oolitic, where the stone fences are capped with a kind of mor- 
tar consisting almost entirely of comminuted oolite, which has 
been crushed down upon the roads, and adapted admirably for 
the development of many a moss, nothing is more common 
than to see the pretty tufts, which rejoice the artist’s eye with 
their warm tints when lghted up by a sunbeam, more or 
less completely marred by large white mouldy patches, which 
soon run into decay. A close imspection shows that here again 
we have the mycelium of a fungus at work, though of a very 
different kind from that just mentioned. At first, indeed, 
nothing but the cotton-web is visible, but this soon becomes 


10 Moss iaaasien 


partially tinted with salmon colour, and then studded with 
little pale scarlet specks, which are the cysts or perithecia of a 
Nectria, which from its peculiar habit has been called Nectria 
muscivora. ‘This species is found on the Continent as well as 
- in this country, and appears in M. Desmaziéres Cryptogames 
du Nord dela France as Spheria bryophila, having been found by 

him about the old fortifications of his neighbouring city, Lille. 
: This little enemy is of 
the greater importance, 
and more worthy of be- 
ing mentioned there, be- 
cause 1b is no less active 
in destroying § mosses 
under cultivation than 
in the open air. I have 
seen it at work in a 


a. Perithecia, magnified. : little conserva: e 
6. Asci with sporidia, magnified. ye ae 


e. Sporidia, highly magnified, natural size voted to these beauti- 
zo00 inch long. ful and interesting ve- 


getables; and it very. 
soon proves fatal if the gardener is not careful to remove it 
with a feather or camel’s-hair pencil, as fast as it appears. 

I observed a few days since another moss parasite in a very 
peculiar position, which deserves record, as much on account of 
its curious habit, as because it forms an addition to our list of 
fungi which prey upon mosses. 

The oolitic stepping stones which run along the ancient 
causeway leading from the site of Fotheringay Castle across 
the valley of Nene, produce, where they are not worn by the 
feet, alarge quantity of that variety of Orthotrichwm cupulatum 
which has a smooth veil, mixed with Schistidiwm apocarpum, 
and one or two other mosses. ‘The capsules of the different 
species of Orthotrichwm,as is well known, are just a year from their 
first growth in coming to perfection, and perhaps partly on 
account of their comparatively short fruit-stalk, and partly from 
the tenacity of the fruit-stalk itself, are more persistent than in 
most mosses, so that the plant at the present moment presents 
the capsules which were ripened last year, those that have just 
come to perfection and the rudiments of the crop which is to be 
matured early next summer. The teeth which surround the 
mouth of the capsule are sixteen in number, and when dry 
spread out more or less, but are not recurved as in several 
other species. I was surprised, however, to find in many of the 
old capsules, that the teeth were horizontal and applied by 
their edges to each other, exactly as when they were still within 
their lid, and just after the fashion of that arrangement of the 
unopened petals or sepals of phoenogams which is known by 


Fic. 3.—Nectria muscivora, Berk. and Broome. 


Moss Parasites. 11 


the name of valvular estivation. When immersed in water no 
change took place in their position, and the teeth seemed per- 
manently glued together. ‘This, of course, excited attention, 
and on opening one of the capsules it appeared that the mass 
of spores was infested by a little pmk Fusisporium, whose shghtly 
gelatinous spores had been the means of closing the orifice 
of the capsules, and preventing the dispersion of the spores. 
I did not indeed always find the mould withm the capsule, its 
proper season being probably over, but on washing the surface 
of the united teeth, | was always able to obtain a quantity of 
the spores of the fungus, which from their peculiar form were 
not likely to be mistaken. 

It is very possible that this little parasite may be extremely 
common, but I believe that it has not been observed before, 
and its discovery affords one among 


the many proofs that, even in the 
most unpromising: situations, there 
is always some novelty to be found Va 


or some interesting fact to be ascer- 
tained if there is an eye to mark it. 
The characters of the little para- 


site are not striking, and its specific 
distinction must rest partly on 
its peculiar habits, for the spores ie 


scarcely differ from those of one or Fy, 4.— Fusispori ium incarcerans, 
two other species. Its characters 

such as they are may be given as Spores, dese sce ee 
follows :— 

Fusisporium incarcerans, Berk. pallide roseum intra sporan- 
gium muscorum vel in peristomio nidulans, sporis arcuatis 
tenuibus triseptatis. 

The spores are about 1-416th of an inch long, but, as is very 
often the case with fungi, are by no means uniform in size. 


12 Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ? 


IS THE GIRAFFE PROVIDED WITH MORE THAN 
TWO HORNS? 


BY T. SPENCER COBBOLD, M.D., F.L.S. 


Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, and Botany at the Middlesex 
Hospital Medical College. 

In the first of a course of public lectures “ On the Structure, 
Habits, and Affinities of the Herbivorous Mammalia” which I 
had the honour of delivering at the Royal Institution of Great 
Britain, Albemarle Street, during the summer of 1860, I ven- 
tured to answer the above proposed question affirmatively. I 
say ‘‘ ventured,’ because I was aware that in doing so I should 
be recording an opinion directly at variance with the published 
views of one to whose elaborate and long-continued researches 
the progress of anatomical and zoological science is deeply 
indebted. In the present case, however, we have to deal with 
a simple matter of fact, and I therefore proceed im the following 
pages to explain the grounds on which, in contradistinction to 
the statements of Professor Owen, it may be truthfully affirmed 
that there are three horns, or “pseudo-ceratophorous epiphyses,”” 
projecting from the skull of the adult male giraffe. 

The veteran traveller, Dr. Edouard Riippell, who, according 
to recent information, is still in the enjoyment of good health, 
and living in the city of Frankfort, was the first to declare 
unequivocally that a third horn existed im the full-grown male. 
In his trustworthy and admirable Reise im Nordlichen Afrika, 
published in the year 1828, he observes that “the horns con- 
stitute the principal generic character, they being formed by 
distinct bones united to the frontals and parietals by a very 
obvious suture, and exhibiting throughout the same structure 
as the other bones. In both sexes one of these abnormal bones 
is situated on each branch of the coronal suture, and the male 
possesses an additional one, placed more anteriorly, and occu- 
pying the middle of the frontal suture.” Not having the 
original work by me at the present time, I quote the above 
translation from an excellent article in the Hnglish Cyclopedia, 
where a rough woodcut is also given, copied from Ruppell, 
representing the third horn in profile. In the Atlas zw der 
Reise, etc., the plates are beautifully executed, and from repeated 
examinations and comparisons, I am convinced of their accuracy 
in all respects. Though less developed and conspicuous, the 
mesial prominence is precisely like the two posterior epiphysial 
horns, and all of them are distinct from the true osseous ele- 
ments of the cranium. 

This early statement of Rtppell appears to have received 
the unqualified support of Baron Georges Cuvier, and so far 


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Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns? 13 


as I am aware, no anatomist found occasion to doubt its correct- 
ness before Professor Owen, who, from the examination of 
crania preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons, Lincoln’s Inn, was led to believe Riippell’s views to be 
erroneous. In his otherwise valuable memoir, modestly entitled 
““ Notes on the Anatomy of the Nubian Giraffe,” published in 
the second volume of the Zoological Society’s Transactions, at 
page 217, he says: “In regard to the existence of horns in 
the two sexes, we find a few examples among both deer and 
antelopes, which thus resemble the giraffe. The horns of 
the giraffe possess, however, certain characters which are pecu- 
liar to themselves ; the basis of the horn, for example, is arti- 
culated by synchondrosis to the frontal and parietal bones, and 
thus constitutes an epiphysis rather than an apophysis of the 
eranium. <A broad, obtuse, osseous eminence in the middle of 
the forehead has been described as a third horn, and has been 
stated to be similarly articulated to the frontal bone, at least in 
the male Nubian giraffe, and to be the only instance of a horn 
developed in the mesial line of the cranium, and over a cranial 
suture in the mammiferous class.” Cuvier says: “Au milieu 
du chanfrein est un tubercle ou une troisiéme corne plus large 
et beaucoup plus courte, mais également articulée par suture.” 
J. B. Fischer describes the third articulated horn as peculiar to 
the male giraffe. To this sentence Professor Owen also appends 
a foot-note, wherein he observes: ‘The figure of the skull 
which illustrates the account of the Nubian giraffe im the Atlas 
zu Tvippel’s Reise im Nordlichen Afrika, pl. ix. p. 28, repre- 
sents indeed this third tubercle as distinct and articulated by 
suture with the cranium; but in the original cranium, from 
which the original figure is taken, and which I have examined 
in the Frankfort Museum, I could not perceive any evidence of 
the existence of such a suture; the mesial protuberance had 
not been detached from an epiphysial articular surface, but had 
been sawn off in order to be preserved in the stuffed animal.’ 
Further on, at p. 235, whilst mstitutmg a comparison between 
the Cape and Nubian varieties of the giraffe, Professor Owen 
adds: “In the adult male Cape giraffe, the only appearance of 
the distinctness of the anterior protuberance is due to some 
irregular vascular grooves at the circumference of its base; but 
similar grooves are also visible in the skull of the female; and 
a section of the skull, taken through the middle of the frontal 
protuberance in the male, shows that it 1s formed by the thick- 
eninge and elevation of the anterior extremities of the frontal, 
and the contiguous extremities of the nasal bones. In the male 
Nubian giraffes, which had attained nearly two-thirds of their 
full stature, the posterior horns, like other bony epiphyses, were 
less firmly attached to the skull than they were in the full 


14 Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ? 


grown Cape giraffes, and they became detached from the 
frontal and parietal bones after a short maceration. Now if 
the anterior protuberance had been formed by a similar sepa- 
rate ossification, this would undoubtedly have been demon- 
strated ina similar manner; it, however, consisted only of a 
partial elevation of the frontal and nasal bones, as in the adult 
Cape giraffe.” 

The very argument which is here adduced by Professor 
Owen to prove the absence of the third horn, is precisely the 
one which I shall presently brmg forward to show that the 
mesial epiphysis exists; but im the meantime I may observe 
that the Professor’s convictions as to the certitude of his views 
are elsewhere more strongly expressed. Thus in his excellent 
article ‘Giraffe,’ in Mr. T. Brande’s Dictionary of Science, Iite- 
rature, and Art, at page 514, speaking of this animal, he 
observes: ‘‘ Up to a very recent period, we find it described as 
having callosities on the knees and over the sternum like the 
camel, and as a kind of lusus with three horns, of which one, 
being articulated over a suture in the middle line of the fore- 
head, seemed to take away from the chimerical nature of the 
unicorn by indicating a transition to that heraldic monster. 
The truth is, however, that the giraffe possesses neither those 
callosities nor this median articulated horn.” 

Having thus fairly stated the grounds on which the absence 
of a third horn is denied by our highest authority in vertebrate 
anatomy, I now proceed to record the evidence and experience 
which enable me to vindicate the originally received opinion, 
as expressed by Ruppell, and to throw light upon a question 
which should now, at once and for ever, be set atrest. In this 
persuasion, let it be observed, I do not stand absolutely alone ; 
for, as I shall afterwards show, the independent Osteologische 
Bemerkungen of Dr. George Jaéger, as recorded by him im the 
twenty-sixth volume of the Acta Acad. C. L.C. Nat. Cur., part 
i. section 3, for 1855, prove that distinguished anatomist to 
have been led to a similar conclusion :— 

1. Inthe young giraffe which died last year at the Zoolo- 
gical Society’s Gardens, Regent’s Park, there was only a slight 
thickening of the subdermal periosteal tissues immediately 
above the central frontal eminence; but it was sufficiently 
thickened to allow of detachment by dissection; and I have 
preserved the separated portion in a dried state. This young 
male giraffe was only about six weeks old. 

2. In another young male giraffe which died at the Zoolo- 
gical Society’s Gardens on the 2nd of December, 1859, the 
fibrous sub-integumentary aponeurosis was still more markedly 
thickened ; but there was as yet no development of a gristly 
cartilaginous tissue within its substance. This giraffe was born 


Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns? 15 


on the 6th of July, 1859, and was therefore about five months 
old. I have given an account of the accidental circumstances 
which led to its death, together with the anatomical peculiarities 
it presented, in a paper entitled ‘‘Contributions to the Anatomy 
of the Giraffe,” published in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings 
for February 14th, 1860. 

3. In an immature male giraffe which died at Hdinburgh 
during the severe winter of 1854, I found the frontal aponeu- 
rotic thickening much more marked, forming on the dried 
skull a distimct fibrous mass, which presented an appearance 
in profile such as I have here represented in the accom- 
panying diagram; the letters a b indicating the border of 
the fronto-nasal eminence, and c the fibrous mass. I gub- 
sequently detached this fibro-cartilagmous matrix 
for separate preservation and examination, but it 
was, I believe, swept away with other museum 
debris, by an assistant who had no knowledge of its 
value. After removal, it was perfectly transparent, 
and free from osseous deposit. The giraffe in ques- 
tion belonged to Wombwell’s travelling menagerie, 
and was represented to me as being about eighteen 
months old. Having, at the outset, devoted three 
weeks to its dissection, and renewed my examina- 
tions of the various organs at subsequent intervals, I 
may, for further particulars respecting its anatomy, 
death, etc., refer to my several memoirs in the Hdin- 
burgh Physiological Society’s Reports for 1854, the 
Edinburgh New Philosophical Jowrnal for 1856, and more par- 
ticularly to the June number of the Annals of Natural History 
for 1854. 

4, When engaged during the autumn of 1856 in writing 
the article ‘‘ Ruminantia”’ for the Supplement to Dr. Todd’s 
Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology; I took occasion to visit 
the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, expressly with the view 
of examining the adult cranium of a fine male giraffe, which I 
understood to be preserved there. Asa result of this inspec- 
tion I subsequently wrote as follows :—“ Through the kindness 
of Dr. Ball we have examined the skeleton of a male giraffe 
which died at the Dublin Zoological Society’s Gardens, and 
which is now preserved in Dr. Harrison’s anatomical museum. 
In this mdividual the central cranial eminence is not smooth as 
in our specimen (above referred to); on the contrary, it is 
particularly rough, owing to the deposition of osseous nodules 
which bear a marked resemblance to the irregular bony laminze 
prolonged from the attenuated margins of the bases of the true 
horns. If these rough prominences could be shown to be . 
separable by maceration, we might with good reason infer the 


16 = Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ? 


rudimentary existence of a third horn.” This fine male for- 
merly belonged to the London Zoological Society, and was 
bred in the Society’s Gardens, Regent’s Park. I have noted 
the peculiar cause of its death, in the paper already referred to, 
in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings for 1860. 

5. After completing the article above mentioned, I visited 
the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn; and 
having, through the ever-ready kindness of the late Professor 
Quekett, had an opportunity of inspecting the giraffine crania 
there preserved, I was in time to append a footnote to “ Rumi- 
nantia” to this effect: “The osseous nodules noticed in the 
Dublin specimen not only exist im one of these crania, but they 
could be partly raised from the subjacent bone by the easy 
insertion of the finger-nail under the margin.” Since the year 
1856 I have repeatedly examined these crania, and have no 
shadow of doubt as to the existence of an ossified synchon- 
drosis which has united the third horn to the frontal eminence. 

6. The distinctness between the third horn and the frontal 
eminence was still more significant in the skull of an adult 
giraffe which died at the Zoological Society’s Gardens several 
years back; but in this case also there was union by synchon- 
drosial ossification. J examined the cranium in 1857, before 
the skeleton was finally cleaned and sent away, and have since 
been informed that it is preserved in a museum at Bristol. 

7. The most cogent evidence, however, which I can adduce, 
is that derivable from the skull of a young male, whose cra- 
nium is here represented in profile, and whose entire skeleton 
may now be seen, set up and preserved, in the Derby Museum 
at Liverpool. This skeleton was formerly in the possession 
of Mr. Gerrard, the accomplished taxidermist at the British 
Museum, and J am indebted to his son for the loan of a care- 
fully-executed drawing which I have here sketched in a reduced 
form, and caused to be’copied in a tinted plate. In this in- 
stance, as I am distinctly and unequivocally informed by several 
gentleman connected with the British Museum, who have 
examined the skull, the third horn became readily detached by 
maceration, 1b was for a considerable time separately preserved, 
and presented all the ordinary characteristics of the two poste- 
rior horns, of whose epiphysial character no one entertains the 
slightest doubt. The third horn, or central pseudo-cerato- 
phorous epiphysis, has since been glued on to its original posi- 
tion, and may now be seen in situ, as a standing proof of the 
correctness of Ruppell’s original persuasion. 

8. In the Museum of the University of Tubingen there is 
also preserved a similar skeleton of a young male giraffe, in 
which—according to verbal information kindly communicated 
to me by Dr. Gunther, of the British Museum, who is familiar 


Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns? 17 


with the specimen—the third horn was equally well marked 
and separated by maceration. 

9. Lastly, I adduce additional conclusive evidence from Dr. 
George Jaeger’s Bemerkungen wher die Horner und Epiphysen, 
etc., as recorded in the twenty-sixth volume of the Acta already 
referred to ; and I bee to call particular attention to this extract, 
which I translate from a footnote appended to the memorr in 
question ; the italics are mine. The author says: “In the 
skull of a young male in the collection at Munich, whose horns 
are scarcely two inches long, and hkewise separated, there is, 
in the place of the third central horn, a rather strongly-marked 
elevation of the frontal bone, but no trace of an epiphysis. In 
the skull (nineteen inches long) of a male received a short time 
ago from the north of Africa, through Dr. Heuglin, which skull 
we believe to be mature, the suture of the hmd horns is still 
perceptible, but the serrated borders are almost firmly united 
to the frontal and parietal bones. The mesial horn, however, is 
still quite separated by the epiphysial cartilage from the frontal 
and nasal bones, whose sutures are not yet obliterated, as also 
obtains in the other cranial bones. The anterior margin of the 
central horn-bone projects about one inch over the posterior 
limit of the nasal bone. From thence the anterior part of the 
horn rises to the tip, forming a very gradual slope, while the 
posterior inclination is comparatively steep and short. It 
results from this that the central horn unites with the bones 
much later than the hinder horns, which are common to both 
Sexes.”” 

After such evidence, it is scarcely reasonable to regard the 
pomt under consideration as still an open question. Had 
Professor Owen chanced to have examined the crania of younger 
males, he would undoubtedly have confirmed Ruppell and 
Cuvier in all essential particulars. The old skull at Frank- 
fort, the skeleton at Dublin, and the cranium in the Hunterian 
collection, all seem at first sight to lend their support to his 
view, because the synchondrosial ossification has in all of these 
cases firmly welded the third horn to the subjacent fronto- 
nasal emimence; but even in some of these specimens a minute | 
imspection indicates at the margins the original distinctness 
of the several osseous elements. The skull at Munich repre- 
sents an example where the mmtervening fibro-cartilage has not 
yet commenced ossification, although it appears to be just on 
the point of doing so.. The crania of young males preserved at 
Tubmgen and Liverpool show the separable but distinctly- 
osseous third horn im a less completely developed condition ; 
and the three young male giraffes dissected by myself seve 
rally displayed yet earlier stages, where the periosteal aponeu- 
rotic matrix in which the third horn would have been developed 

VOL, 11.—NO. I. C 


18 The Minstrels of the Summer. 


had become more and more thickened, according to the rela- 
tive increase of age. These being the facts of the case, I have 
no hesitation, for my own part, i asserting that every adult 
male giraffe is certainly possessed of three distinct horns, or, 
to speak in the more precise zoological phraseology which I 
have elsewhere adopted, this ruminating herbivore possesses 
three cranial ‘“‘pseudo-ceratophorous epiphyses permanently 
invested by a hairy integument.” 


THE MINSTRELS OF THE SUMMER. 
BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD. 


Tr is one of the consolations of having to live within the hear- 
ing of the tolling of the hour by the clock of St. Paul’s that all 
the summer minstrels are to be heard in the garden. Though 
only three miles distant, as the crow flies, from the General Post 
Office, Stoke Newington is annually visited by the nightingale, 
cuckoo, flycatcher, blackcap, garden warbler, whitethroat, 
grasshopper warbler, redstart, and some few other nomadic 
minstrels of less fame. Every spring it occurs to me that it 
would be an interesting contribution to natural history if we 
could have lists of all the birds visiting and nesting in the im- 
mediate vicinity of our great towns and cities, and as the 
plants peculiar to numerous suburban districts have been care- 
fully registered, we might hope some day for similar catalogues 
of birds classified as to their localities, with especial reference 
to the nearness of their haunts to populous places. In the 


pages of Rustic Adornments, I called the attention of Lon- 
- doners to the fact that at Stoke Newington the nightingale was 


always to be heard in its season, and in consequence of that 
intimation there have been numerous parties formed to visit the 
reservoirs in Lordship Road, where, in the secluded shrubberies, 
this and other warblers breed in perfect security. Though 
during the period of twenty years’ experience in connection 
with the nightingale in this locality, buildings have increased 
to an extent which would be saddening were it not true that 
men are better than trees, the nightingales have not only not 
left it, but this year they literally abound, and since the 22nd 
of April I have commonly heard three and four at a time 
singing in rivalry among the trees surrounding my own garden. 
So with the cuckoo, its merry, inspiriting note may be heard 
resounding from every point of the compass, and wrens and 
blackcaps are almost as numerous as sparrows. This, I 
imagine, is to be attributed in some measure to our increasing 


The Minstrels of the Summer. 19 


regard for the protection of small birds; people are beginning 
to appreciate birds as proper adjuncts of rural scenery, and 
the destructive propensities of the untaught are kept in check 
by proprietors who value birds in trees more than birds in 
cages. 

The supposed ornithological poverty of suburban districts 
is mainly attributable to the infrequency of a habit of obser- 
vation among the residents. People who believe that no more 
select feathered visitants than sparrows ever do them the 
honour of a call should adopt an agreeable method of putting 
the matter to the test. Choose a time between the Ist of 
May and the 20th of June, and to secure the best day let it be 
the lst of June, and on that day renounce the solicitations of 
Morpheus. In other words, sit up all night, walk about the 
garden, read a play of Huripides in a room overlooking the 
woodiest prospect you have, and take care to keep the window 
open. I confess that I set apart many nights during that 
period to enjoy perfect stillness, broken only by the bark- 
ing of dogs, the crowing of cocks, and the singing of feathered 
minstrels. With a cup of good coffee, and Virgil’s Georgics, 
or a readable edition of Columella, better still the Psalms of 
David, it is like adding a year to one’s life, so intense is the 
enjoyment of the coolness, the greenness, the music, and the 
whispers of the wind. From 8 till 11 p.m. the concert is kept 
up with unflaggine vigour by thrushes, blackbirds, wrens, 
blackcaps, and nightingales, the cuckoo adds his bass accom- 
paniment or chorus. I have just seen the sun rise after one of 
these nocturnal vigils, and I feel fresh: the dew is wet on my 
beard; I feel elastic, and should like to walk up a breezy hill, 
had I not noted a few passages in books that I have turned 
over, and to which I propose making reference. I have heard 
the muttering of crickets and beetles in the privet hedge, seen 
roosting thrushes change their places, heard a quarrel between 
two sparrows cowering under a ledge of timber on the roof of 
a shed, and counted the voices of nine species of birds between 
midnight and 2 a.m. Within one hour from 11.30P.m.to12.30a.m. 
I heard the cuckoo, nightingale, thrush, woodlark, reed-wren, 
whitethroat, willow-wren. Soon after 1 a.m. I heard, in addi- 
tion to the foregoing, the chaffinch, the wren, and the chiffchaff, 
and after two o’clock there was such a general mingling of 
voices that it was possible only to distinguish the thrush, 
cuckoo, chaffinch, and robin, whose utterances are so distinct 
as to be at all times unmistakeable. Far away on the borders 
of the New Forest, and among the crowded slopes of Hereford- 
shire and Hertfordshire, 1 have at night heard the golden oriole, 
the rmg-ousel, the water-ousel, and the grey wagtail; the last 
to be seen as well as heard during moonlight at the midnight 


20 The Minstrels of the Summer. 


hour, but none of these, so far as I know, visit the gardens near 
London. . 

The music of birds has a different effect to music of every 
other kind, and it may be that the associations of vegetable 
luxuriance and the enjoyment of a refreshing out-door tempe- 
rature assist the charm and are properly parts-of it. Gassendi 
gives a curious reason for preferring the music of birds to that 
of instruments, and describes the effect of the latter on the 
mind—“ Preehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque 
harmonicis, musicam ilam avium.” Certainly with a western 
prospect, consisting of broken campaign sward terminating in a 
backeround of copse and tall elms, when the sun darts his first 
horizontal beams across it, and with a scarlet thorn to perfume ~ 
the air and a thrush or nightingale m song overhead, the plea- 
sure is as great as can be borne, and is enough to make one 
satisfied that our summer grows by successive increments, for 
if it were to burst upon us all at once it would be too much for 
ordinary powers of endurance. 

it has been frequently remarked that song birds generally 
haunt the dwellings of man. ‘This is particularly the case in 
Britain, though it is a mistake to allege that the birds of the 
tropical wilderness are deficient of musical powers, and in the 
tropics, especially of America, the richest bird-music is heard 
in districts where man is at most a sojourner, and has never 
chosen a site for a village or encampment. It may be that 
_ song birds like human society, as it is certain the robin, black- 

bird, and thrush do; and it may also happen that food and 
conveniences for building are more plentiful on the skirts of 
towns and villages than in deep forests and great open wastes. 
But this association has not been without its effect on litera- 
ture; and when I have heard some of those wild Scottish and 
Irish airs that remain to us of the music of the past, I have often 
thought they were borrowed from the songs of birds; and I 
should suppose the modulations of the robin, the nightingale, 
and the song thrush, would furnish ready-made compositions, 
needing only to be copied, for the use of the mellowest human 
voices, and for any class of soft-toned wind instruments. 
Gardener’s Music of Nature I have never seen, but have always 
understood that it is a reduction to musical scale of the songs 
of our best birds. Kircher; in his Universal Harmony (vol. 1. 
chap. 14), attempted a reduction of the nightingale’s song, and 
with much better success than Bechstein’s reduction to words 
consisting of zi and zo endlessly repeated. The very thought 
of wedding such music to words, as I believe was done by the 
old Scottish and Irish minstrels, suggests the question, What 
do the birds themselves mean? for these exquisite utterances 
have a meaning, we may be sure, and are not far away from 


The Minstrels of the Summer. 21 


parallels to the hymns and ballads we sing ourselves. Every 
observer of birds must be familiar with their several call-notes 
to each other, their expressions of joy and alarm, from the 
blackbird’s “ chuck ” when in possession of a snail, and “‘chirrall, 
chirrall,’” when suddenly alarmed, to the harsh ‘‘ chink” of the 
robin when about to fight. As Plato called flowers the joy of 
plants, we must perhaps be content with equal vagueness of 
description in designating song the joy of birds. When the 
heart is merry we are wont to sing, and while the woods and 
gardens resound with a thousand melodious lays we can dis- 
cover therein a new cause for thankfulness to the Father of all 
things, not only that we are made happy thereby, but that all 
the world brims with joy and speaks aloud its ecstasy in the 
voices of these timid, fluttering creatures. 

The language of animals is not a new theme. Sir William 
Jones tells of a lutanist whe, m a grove at Schiraz, competed 
with the nightingales who gathered round him on the branches, 
and in their endeavours to outdo the musician fell on the 
ground at his feet exhausted. In the thirty-fifth number of the 
Quarterly Review is an account of a man who had learnt the 
language of birds, and knew by the call of the mother where 
the nest was, how old the young were, and how many she had 
reared in the nest. But this 1s nothing to the story of Por- 
phyry, in his delightfully gossiping book on abstinence. He 
Says, vindicating the possession of reason by animals, “that 
which is vocally expressed by the. tongue is reason, in whatever 
manner it be expressed, whether in a barbarous, or a Grecian, 
or canine, or a bovine mode; all other animals that are vocal 
participate of it.” * * * * “This, for instance, is related 
of Melampus and Tyaneeus, and others of the like kind, that 
they understood the speech of animals. It is related of Apol- 
lonius Tyanzus that once, when he was with his associates, 
a swallow happening to be present, and twittermg, he said 
that the swallow indicated to other birds that an ass laden 
with corn had fallen down before the city, and that in conse- 
quence of the fall to the ass the corn was spread about on 
the ground. An associate of mine informed me that he once 
had a boy for a servant who understood the meaning of all 
kinds of birds, and who said that all of them were prophetic.” 
(De Abstinentia ab esu aninralium, lib. iii. 8.) 

Thales and Tiresias are both represented to have under- 
stood the language of birds; and Plato, in his picture of the 
golden age, supposes men to have understood the language of 
birds and beasts. Cicero says the Arabians cultivated this 
knowledge; and Sigard, in the Scadinavian Mythology, ac- 
quires the gift by eating the flesh of a serpent. 

It is an old dispute, of which a book-lover never tires, 


22 The Minstrels of the Summer. 


whether the song of the nightingale be merry or sad. As 
Hartley Coleridge puts it, it is a poet’s question :— 


“Oh, nightingale, what doth she ail, 
And is she sad or jolly ?” 


But the naturalist must have an opinion, and his decision will 
be that it depends very much on the mood of the person hear- 
ing it. Such exquisitely tender, plaintive, and refined modu- 
lations as the nightingale pours forth for hours together, and 
generally at a time when other birds are sparing of their songs, 
will, of necessity, induce a feeling of agreeable sadness. No 
intensely wrought performance in any department of art causes 
mirth; the absorption of enjoyment is fatal to jollity, which 
catches at things as they flit over the surface of life, and cannot 
go deep without the certaimty of being lost. Homer and Horace 
give us no opinions on the subject. The passsge in the Helena 
of Huripides, beginning at line 1191 of Potter’s version, is de- 
cisive as to the opinion of this careful observer of nature :— 


** Thee, sweetest bird, most musical 
Of all that warble their melodious song 
The charmed woods among, 
Thee, tearful Nightingale, I call. 
Oh come, and from thy dark plumed throat 
Swell sadly sweet thy melancholy note 
Attempered to my voice of woe.” 


The beautiful thought of Isaac Walton is familiar to every 
reader; not so, perhaps, that in Sylvester’s Dw Bartas, be- 
ginning— 

All this is nothing to the nightingale! 
Breathing so sweetly from a breast so small 
So many tunes.” 


Sophocles invariably represents the nightingale as sad, 
and, in common with the poets, addresses the bird in the 
feminine gender. How awfully touching is that passage in 
the Agamemnon of Alschylus, where the chorus describes the 
“frenzy of a mind possessed with wildest ravings,” as 


“Like the sweet bird 
That darkling pours her never-ceasing plaint.” 


And what reader of Sophocles will forget the wandering 
(Hdipus, in his blindness and exile, led by his daughter to a 
land the name of which they knew not, where 


‘In the midst 
Thick fluttering nightingales their sweet notes tune.” 


Whose line is that—“ Dulces variat Philomela querelas ?” At 
would be worth knowing, for it gives a new form to the dis- 
cussion. Virgil comes near its spirit in the Georgics (IV.1. 511), 


The Minstrels of the Summer. nce 


“‘Qualis populed’ mcerens Philomela sub umbri,” etc.,* beauti- 
fully rendered by Dryden— 
“Her children gone, 

The mother nightingale laments alone, 

Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence, 

By stealth, convey’d th’ unfeathered innocence, 

But she supplies the night with mournful strains ; 

And melancholy music fills the plains.” —(L. 741—7.) 


Milton described the song as ‘most musical, most melan- 
choly,” yet, after all, these quotations go for nothing, except 
tq show that, according to the mood of the mind is the nature 
of the impression, for the chorus in Helena is overwhelmed by 
anguish as the tragedy moves towards its climax. Virgil de- 
scribes the song of a bird bereaved of its young, and Milton has 
it, in Il Penseroso, where every item of the furniture “‘some sad 
embroidery wears.” So Aischylus, in the Agamemnon, makes 
amends for coupling the nightingale with images of woe— 


“Ahme! Ah me! the nightingale’s sweet lot! 
A sweet existence that lamenteth not.» 


The nightingaie is, in habit, one of the cheerfullest, as it is, 
perhaps, the most elegant of small birds. There is a tree in 
my garden on which a nightingale perches over my head a 
dozen times a day, while huntmeg for caterpillars and other 
dainties, and its sprightly action is unequalled for life and 
grace and spirit, coupled with a delicate shyness, most appro- 
priate to such a marvellous songster. I often repeat to myself, 
as I enjoy the glorious concert, which, from the end of April to 
the end of June, rings out during the whole twenty-four hours, 
those lines of Gavin Douglas— 

** To bete thare amouris of thare nychtis bale 


The merle, the mavys, and the nychtingale, 
With mirry notis myrthfully furth brist.” 


It is at night only that the thought of sadness would occur, 
and as the nightingale, until his mate has hatched the brood, 
sings at all hours, except just before and just after noon, it 


only needs to be heard in the daytime to prove that, intrinsi- 


cally, the song is neither sad nor playful; it is deeply joyous, 
rich, sonorous, and enlivening, except during the gloom of a 
moonless night, when it rises above the sigh of the fitful gust, 
and issues out of darkness like weird music from a tomb. 

Birds vary much as to the power of individuals and the 
effect of circumstances. The same bird will trill out a more 
spirited lay after a warm shower than during a cold, dry east 
wind. ‘There are times when, for a few hours, or a whole 


* Comment peuvent se rencontrer ensemble la nuit et ’ombre du peuplier.— 
Heutiana, x\v. 


24 The Minstrels of the Summer. 


day, the feathered choristers seem animated by a passion of 
emulation, and pour forth such an exuberance of ewild music, 
that is almost more than a sensitive mind can bear. Such a 
day was Tuesday, the 29th of April, when the gardens of Stoke 
Newington seemed to be peopled with all the songsters of the 
world, engaged in an international contest. Others, beside 
myself, observed it; it was a subject of conversation for 
days after. Amongst the number then noticeable was @ 
thrush, who had a nest hard by in a thicket, and who, since 
early in February, had made the welkin ring from the dawn of 
day till long after evening twilight. That same evening one 
of my neighbours—hatine the noise, | suppose—fired a gun, 
and that particular thrush has not been heard since. Whether 
he killed the thrush I cannot say, he is perhaps happy that he 
silenced it. Requiescat in pace, with no ghost of a thrush to 
warble reproaches on his grave. 

Cowper has the credit of first honourmg in verse the fre- . 
quency of the nightmgale’s song by day. But Rapin had 
already noticed the fact— 


**Omanes implevit ramos 
Noctes atque dies.” —Hort. lib, i. 
And Shakspere has actually misrepresented the case— 
“The nightingale, if she would sing by day, 
When every goose is cackling, would be thought 
No better a musician than a swan.” —Merchant of Veniee, act it SC: Ve 
The song, day or night, is doubtless the most delicious music 
that ever saluted mortal ears since the day when the angels 
sang “ Glory to God in the Highest.” Milton was the first to 
make it the music of Hden, where Eve relates her dream to 
Adam, and when we hear it now, we may all say— 
“Music of Paradise! which still is heard 
When the heart listens.” 
Tennyson has caught at the same idea in In Memoriam, in 
the invocation to the nightingale— 
“ Wild bird, whose warble liquid sweet, 
Rings E Eden through the budded quicks. ii 
Keats’s ode is as rich and tender as the fullest eush of this 
rare warbler’s notes, and it has the truth of all his rustic images 
and scenes, especially where he describes 1t— 


** Tn some melodious plot 
Of beechen green and shadows numberless ;”” 


for strange to say, if there be a beech within range of the 
bird’s haunts, he will choose that for his retreat, and at the 
present moment a pair have nested in a beech within sight of 
my study window. I would help to hang a bird-catcher, ama- 


* 
The Minstrels of the Suimer. 25 


teur or professional, who would dare to molest them. I can 
only say more about the nightingale’s song that the best de- 
scription of it is m Conder’s Star in the ‘Bast, and that to 
account for its disappearance when its short season of love and 
song is over, Carew has a capital conceit— 
** Ask me no more, whither does haste 

The nightingale ; when May is past. 

For in your sweet, dividing throat 

She winters, and keeps warm her note.” 

What a mysteryis migration,and how much greater a mystery 
has it been made by that class of naturalists who persist in 
treating animals as if they were mere receptacles for food and 
vehicles of fur and feathers. The Marquis of Worcester’s disqui- 
sition is worth reading for its quaintness, but the notions of 
Linneeus do discredit to that generally broad-minded philoso- 
pher, for the great master clung to the notion of swallows 
hybernating under the waters of ponds, and in Hllis’s Cor- 
respondence of Linneus are particulars of the experiments for 
any who would have a laugh at the great Swede. Stranger 
* still that Gilbert White, most observant of observers, had a 
‘secret fancy for the hybernating theory, though well aware of 
the fact that the temperature of the blood of any of our summer 
birds is higher than that of man, or any other of the most 
active creatures. Tor a bird to hybernate, especially under 
water, is simply impossible. So energetic is the life of these 
little creatures that while they remain with us they scarcely 
sleep at.all. You shall see swallows and swifts darting about 
till the last moment of twilight, and you shall see them again. 
at half-past two next morning wheeling aloft and twittering as 
freshly as if they needed no rest, and so with the cuckoo and 
the warblers, the almost unbroken contimuance of their song 
during the twenty-four hours round, is a proof of the energy of 
the circulation and all the vital processes. Their bones are 
hollow, they are themselves reservoirs of oxygen, and the 
flame of life burns more fiercely in their breasts than in any 
other class of animated creatures. Dr. Derham, in his Physico- 
Philosophy, notices two circumstances about migratory birds, 
first, that these wntaught, unthinking creatures, should know the 
proper times for their passage, when to come and when to go; 
as also that some should come when others retire. Now to call 
them untaught and unthinking is to beg the question. In what 
revelation do we read that they are in either case such utter 
negatives? surely only in the revelation of human vanity. Hx- 
periments with which every tamer and teacher of birds is 
familiar, prove that their natural songs are acquired by the 
Same process as we acquired a knowledge of A, B, © at school. 
As you pass along the side of a copse in July and “August, you 


>? 
26 The Minstrels of the Summer. 


will hear hundreds of little birds recording the songs they, are 
just learning of their parents, and the parents always sing till 
their young have learnt their lesson properly; and hence, 
though the nightingale usually sings less vehemently after he 
has found a mate, he does sing till August if the first brood 
has met with an accident, and the parents hatch out a second. 
White records the singing of the mightingale on the Ist of 
May, and Markwick on the 4th of July,and the latter adds, 
“last seen, the 29th of August.” Take a young bird from 
the nest before it is old enough to have learnt of its parents, 
and it will learn any song or no song, just as circumstances in- 
fluence it. J have acanary that was brought up to the nightin- 
gale’s sone, and sings it to perfection. He has since learnt the 
chirp of the sparrow, the warble of the wren, the harsh twirk- 
ing of the blue-headed parakeet, and the graceful melody of a 
creaking wheelbarrow. Hen birds of almost any kind will 
sing nearly as well as cocks if well trained from the nest, and 
if singing is so mucha matter of tuition, why should not flymg 
be. Anywhere just now you may see the sparrows teaching 
their young to fly, and a pretty sight it is; the prettiest of the 
season. If they are taught to fly from a tree to the ground, 
and from the ground to a paling, why not over seas and conti- 
nents im such cases as render long flight necessary? We are 
met here with the word “Instinct,” which gives no account 
of motives, of caution in avoiding accidents, or of the almost 
supernatural powers of sight and wing which migratory birds 
possess. The swift will fly a mile in a minute, and in the 
course of a season traverses eight times the circumference of » 
the globe in search of flies within the range of less than an acre 
of territory. 

I remember a match of pigeon-flying between London and 
Amsterdam, in which the winning bird flew at the rate of two 
mules every three minutes, according to the timing of the com- 
petitors, who started and received the bird at the two extremes 
of its journey. Let those who cling to the unsatisfactory solu- 
tion of instinct keep carriers three years, and fly them on 
scientific principles, and they will, at the end of that period, 
toss Dr. Derham’s idea of “ untaught, unthinking creatures” 
to its proper limbo among obsolete notions. ‘There are three 
things noticeable in the migration of birds; first, that change 
of residence is desirable; secondly, that they know where 
to go, and thirdly, they know how to go by the safest and the 
shortest route. Hgypt houses a vast number of our summer 
visitants. Why we cannot say, except that doubtless the food 
and climate suit them. Africa, indeed, is the winter home 
of the greater number of the British warblers; and why they 
come here we cannot say, except that, as before, the food 


OR 


ae eae - 
os > en ee ee 


The Minstrels of the Sunvmer. 27 


and climate suit them. And what a blessing that our woods, 
and flowery leas, and gardens, are deemed worthy of a long 
stay, and of deep domestic joys by such happy, confident, and 
silver-throated creatures. The puzzle to naturalists is that 
they find their way over lakes, rivers, deserts, and seas, to the 
very spots that best suits them. I know a still more curious 
case, for when a boy I had given to me a pair of Guildhall 
pigeons, which I kept in a large cage of laths until they reared 
a pair of young ones. ‘They then got out, owing to a rent in 
the laths, and made their way back to Guildhall, where, one of 
them having lost its tail, they were identified the same day by 
the friend who had scandalized the civic authorities in catching 
and sending them me. In this case the bump of locality must 
have been larger than that of philo-progenitiveness, and as the 
birds had never made that particular flight before, it was a 
greater puzzle than the passage of birds from Africa.to England, 
or vice versd, because these go in flocks, and there must be in 
every flock a certain number who have made the journey before, 
and can pilot the way for all the fledglings. Nor isit such a 
great undertaking, as it seems they rest on the rigging of 
ships, on headlands, and in places of seclusion, when stress of 
weather compels, and as the majority of migratory birds, 
especially those that traverse the Mediterranean, are insect 
eaters, they will probably find enough food to support them 
while on the wing, both by sea and land. The narrative by 
Mr. Thompson, in the Annals of Natural History for October, 
1841, gives a list of twenty-seven birds which alighted or 
hovered about her Majesty’s ship Beacon, durmg a voyage up 
the Mediterranean, in the month of April, and amongst them 
were the swallow, martin, willow-wren, quail, hoopoe, oriole, 
redstart, flycatcher, wheatear, and some of the minor raptores, 
When we see a sheep leave a parched herbage to rejoice in 
clover it does not surprise us, but we commend the creature 
for its good taste ; the flight of a bird to a region adapted to its 
habits, when its hitherto home has ceased to be attractive, is but a 
similar process on a grander scale, and our wonder arises because 
of the distance, and the apparent frailty of the creature attempt- 
ing it. But the poetry of the fact is heightened by granting 
reason and motive for the act, and wonder may stretch 
more wide her wings, and take flight with them through the 
mysterious darkness over pathless wilds, the more happy to be 
associated with roving intelligences that move according to a 
plan for mutual protection and guidance, than when resting in 
the thought that they know not how to go or where to go, but 
ily by blind destiny, the victims of erratic chance, like so many 
whiffs of gossamer scattered about by the winds. To see 
the swallows gathering at nightfall among the mists of autumn, 


28 Insects Injurious to the Eln. 


though a common enough sight to country people, is one never 
to be forgotten as long as a man lives. To talk of magnifying 
the Creator, by ascribing all those movements to “ unerring 
instinct,” is to reduce Almighty wisdom to the cunning of an 
artist who has made a toy, and is half frantic that it dances 
when he pulls the strings. How much more consistent with all 
the plans and operations of nature which He has ordered, to 
believe that these wanderers have had given them a sufficient 
intelligence to rule their lives for good, and direct their 
appetites and passions for the preservation and increase of each 
particular race. When Natural Theology squeezes the mind 
out of a poor bird, it stoops almost as low as the bird-catcher 
who has drawn his net upon a sparrow, and who then twists its 
neck, because, in the first place, he delights in cruelty, and in 
the second place it is not the bird he wants. Pretty creatures, 
putting human wits to shame by your long journeys, without 
chart or compass, from one flowery land to another, how many 
risks have you to encounter, like the first Phoenician merchants, 
or the voyagers for the Golden Fleece, yet how much wiser 
than they in your unerring course and peaceful purpose, to 
carry happy voices into every chosen haunt. 


INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE ELM. 
BY H. NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


Iv has been asserted that of late years our native elm has 
exhibited less vigour mm its growth, and that, im many in- 
stances, trees which might have been considered in the vigour 
of their age have been seized with sudden symptoms of decay, 
and have rapidly perished. Some have attributed the less 
flourishing state of this handsome and useful forest tree to the 
extensive system of drainage now going on, as the elm prefers a 
damp soil. Others have suggested different causes; some, 
and apparently with most show of reason, assigning it to the ra- 
vages of certain insects which burrow between the bark and the © 
hard wood of the trunk, which is the most probable cause. 
Taking this as the most likely cause of a certain amount of 
decay, the experiments of M. Robert, an eminent French 
botanist, merit careful consideration. Some years ago the trees 
of the Parisian Boulevards having shown symptoms of disease, 
M. Robert, whose experiments in tree diseases were already 
well known, was consulted on the subject. He attributed their 
diseased state principally to the ravages of the larva of a small 
beetle—Scolytus destructor, and with a view to the prevention of 


Insects Injurious to the Elm. 29 


this cause, pared off portions of the bark in longitudinal strips, 
thus removing at once both the food and the protection of a 
great portion of the msect enemies. This measure was, how- 
ever ineffectual, and M. Robert next proceeded to strip off the 
whole of the bark. This was considered by many a rash pro- 
ceeding ; but the event seems to prove that M. Robert was 
right, for entire colonies of insects were thus destroyed, and 
the bark, contrary to general expectation, 1s stated to have 
been perfectly reproduced. M. Robert, having apparently 
proved .the efficacy of his method in cases where trees were 
attacked with scolytus, was called upon to apply his mode of 
cure to diseased trees in many parts of the French provinces, 
and also in Belgium; receiving various testimonial honours 
from many learned and scientific associations. 

The severe method pursued by M, Robert may appear at 
a first glance extremely rash, especially on taking into conside- 
ration that the system of ringing only—that is, taking off a 
narrow strip of bark all round the trunk—is a method used for 
killing trees in forest clearings. Yet, we shall see, allowing his 
results to be indisputable, that M. Robert’s process may be 
founded on sound botanical physiology. But let us first find the 
imsect enemies of the elm, and having acquired a just idea of 
the exact nature of their ravages, consider whether the process 
of M. Robert be likely to prove efficacious for their destruction. 

Among the most fatal of the tiny enemies of the elm, and 
others of our largest forest trees, 1s the Cossonus linearis, a 
terrible foe, for fresh specimens of which I am indebted to Mr. 
K. A. Smith of the British Museum. The figure at page 30 will 
convey a good idea of the insect im its perfect state. It is, 
however, in its larva state that its devastations are committed. 
The larva is, as may be conceived from the size of the perfect 
insect, very minute, and is a soft smooth grub totally devoid 
of legs, but it is furnished with considerable muscular power, 
and with powerful mandibles, with which it at the same time 
takes its food and perforates its miniature tunnel. This tiny 
creature does not only feed between the bark and the solid wood, 
either on the delicate liber or inner bark, or on the alburnum, that 
is to say, the last formed layer of wood, still in a soft state, but 
eats its way right into the heart of the tree through the sound, 
hard wood; and for these deeply internal ravages M. Robert’s 
system offers no remedy. A colony of these creatures works 
upon the doomed tree, till it becomes perforated in all direc- 
tions, and through every part of its vital tissues. The symptoms 
of disease soon show themselves; it loses the power to put 
_ forth its leaves; and, deprived of the result of their important 
functions, rapidly perishes. 

Another enemy which, as being exceedingly numerous, is per- 


30 Insects Injurious to the Elm. 


haps more fatal, is a small beetle known as Scolytus destructor, 
which is shown below. It is affirmed by some naturalists that 
this insect only appears upon a tree when a morbid or diseased 


A. The tunnel of cossonus linearis. 3. Greatly magnified head of 8. 
B. Cossonus linearis. destructor. ~ 

1. Magnified larva of S. destructor. 4. 8. destructor magnified. 

2. Larva of S. destructor. 5. Size of S. destructor. 


growth has already taken place; but I have found small numbers 
under the bark of apparently healthy trees. The first ravages 
probably induce that morbid growth which renders the mul- 
tiplication of the insect more rapid, as softening the wood and 
bark, and rendering them more available as food. Scolytus 
destructor is one of a group of insects which the German 
naturalist, Ratzeburg, has minutely described in his Forst In- 
secten (forest insects), a great work which he produced at 


the request, and under 
—, the immediate patron- 
aa ( mal uly 
yi . 
) | | i 
y mt | VY 
cca / 


age, of the Prussian 
government. He has 
fieured in that volume 
many species of this 
genus and several al- 
(ins lied genera, besides an 
a 


other insects injurious 
to forest trees, exhibit- 
ing them, in many in- 
stances, in the larva, 
pupa, and _ perfect 
states, in order that 
foresters may recog- 


No. 1.—Tracks of Scolyti on the wood of the : ; eas 
- elm. nize their enemies in 


all their stages. 
The two engraved specimens of wood injured by the Scolytus 
and its congeners, will show the manner in which they eat their 


immense number of .- 


Insects Injuriows to the Elin. ol 


way between the bark and the main trunk. Their food bemg 


the alburnam, or soft white portions of newly formed wood, as 


before stated, which lies between the liber or inner bark, and 
the already hardened wood or duramen. The insect leaves 
about an equally deep track in both bark and wood; though, 
in general, if a piece of bark be broken off, the larva of the 
Scolytus will come away with it. The specimen of wood, No. 1, 
page 30, shows the tracks of a colony of Scolyti. The perfect 
insect or beetle has the power of perforating the bark, say at 
A; 16 then com- 
mences a tunnel, 
till at B it forms 
a deeper cavity, 
which some de- 
scribe asa turn- § 
ing place to en- @ 
able the female 
to effect her re- Ry 
treat, should she @ 
survive the act % mr Il ramacaly | (Me 
of depositing her Weel Mia ea Ce AM AIAN UN 
ova. Lhave,how- ‘' ag elt Ae Aa 

ever, found eggs 
deposited in such 
cavities which ap- 
pear to succeed 
each at certain distances, and in which, as it appears to me, suc- 
cessive batches of eges are placed. When the eggs are hatched 
the young larve depart to the right and left of this main 
channel, eating their way as they go. It will be seen that 
at their commencement these lateral channels are very narrow, 
the larve being still small; but, growing as they advance, 
the channel gradually widens, till at last it terminates, at its 
greatest degree of breadth, in a blunt cul-de-sac. In this 
extremity of the channel, the larva having attained its full 
growth, sinks into the dormant period of its existence, in which 
it undergoes its change to the perfect or winged state. This 
takes place with only the protection of a slight husk, which it 
constructs for itself, very inferior in structure to the elegantly 
formed case of the chrysalids of butterflies and moths. The 
larva gradually shortens and thickens, and the wings, legs, 
antenne, and other members belonging to the perfect state 
gradually develop themselves within this imperfect pupa case. 
The beetle, when the full metamorphosis has taken place, 
eats, or rather bores it way through the bark, and emerges 
from the dark chambers in which the earlier stages of its ex- 
istence have taken place, to the open daylight. Its daylight 


ir 
, 


No. 2.—A piece ofelm wood showing the tracks of 
B. Chalcographus and B. Topographus. 


32 Insects Tiywrious to the Hln. 


existence, however, is a very short one, and the female, so soon 
as her instinct teaches her that the time has arrived for de- 
positing her eggs, bores again through the thick bark for that 
purpose, voluntarily quitting the daylight for ever, as she fre- 
quently dies almost immediately after depositing her last batch 
of eggs in the dark tunnel, which thus serves at the same time 
for the tomb of the parent and the cradle of the progeny.* 
The curiously branching tracks of insects of this class have 
in many cases suggested the name by which different species 
are distinguished—each having a peculiar method of progres- 
sion, which, of course, leaves a track of corresponding charac- 
ter. For istance, the insect of the genus Bostrichus, the larvze 
of which makes the little branching channels which look lke 
lines engraved on metal, and are marked « in the engraving of 
injured wood, No. 2, has received the specific name of chalco- 
graphus, from a term founded on Greek words meaning “ an 
engraver on brass.” Another, the one whose larva makes the 


* T have just received the following additional details respecting the habits of 
the Scolytus, and the fatal nature of its ravages. These interesting particulars 
are from a paper recently read before the Entomological Society, by one of the 
most careful and accurate observers among our English entomologists :—“ When 
the first warmth of spring sets in the perfect msect makes its escape from beneath 
the bark, by eating its way out; the female soon after selects a tree for the pur- 
pose of depositing ‘her ova 3 : she commences her perforation always beneath a little 
projecting piece of bark, at the upper end of a crack; she bores onwards and 
upwards until on the surface of the alburnum, when she ascends direct. The 
tube thus formed is from two to three and a half inches in length, three-fourths 
of a line in diameter, and of equal size throughout, except ata short distance 
from its entrance, where a small cavity is usually found, sufficiently large to allow 
the perfect insect to turn; on each side, in small crenules, she deposits her eges 
as she advances. If the female insect live to effect her retreat, she closes the 
aperture by which she effected her entrance with some plastic material, to prevent 
the entrance of enemies; the number of eggs is in proportion to the length of 
the tube—there are generally sixty to seventy. On burstimg their shells the 
young larve immediately commence feeding on the last deposits of alburnum. 
They at first form parallel lines or tubes, which are seen gradually to enlarge and 
diverge, and are filled with exuvie. Here they continue to feed during the 
summer, autumn, and winter (if mild); when full-grown they form a case, in 
which they change to the pupa state, and then, at the end of May, or the begin- 
ning of June, bore their way out through the substance of the bark. . . When the 
insect greatly abounds, it will perforate the bark of fresh hewn timber ; but I 
have never found one specimen in an elm whose juices were dried up. Therefore, 
irrespective of the cause of disease, it must be unanimously granted that an insect 
which can destroy four square inches of bark by detaching it from the alburnum, 
must prove highly destructive, and whilst permitted to remain must frustrate 
any attempt to restore health. When we find a tree dead, with terminal branches 
profuse and perfect, we certainly, under ordinary circumstances, should not say 
tliat tree had died from defective nutrition in the soil; but that, from some cause or 
another, it had suddenly, as it were, come to an untimely end; and such a tree 
we had in the Gardens (Royal Botanic). I watched it in its beauty, and in three 
years saw it cut down and carried away dead. But what a sight met our view on 
removing the bark—the surface of the trunk, as many gentlemen will remember, 
for I exhibited a piece of it three feet long before this Society (Entomological), 
was beautifully scored by the lateral tubes of the Scolytus larva, and we reckoned 
that this solitary tree gaye birth to no less than the prodigious number of 280,000 
perfect insects.” 


a 


Insects Injurious to the Elin. 30 


channels figured at B in No. 2, has been styled topographus, 
or “map maker,” from a supposed resemblance in the chan- 
nels to the lines indicating rivers, etc., on engraved maps. 
It is a rather larger insect than chalcographus, as shown 
by the larva tracks, which may easily be compared, as the 
traces of both are frequently found in the same tree. The 
channel of another larva of this class has somewhat the ap- 
pearance of writmg, to which it is indebted for its specific 
title autographus, while others have received equally charac- 
teristic names. 

Mr. Westwood states that he has often found Hylisinus 
Fraxini in the elm, though its name would indicate that its 
ravages were confined to the ash. It is a small beetle, very 
sunilar in form to the 8. destructor, but it is of lighter colour— 
the wing-cases being prettily variegated or clouded with a deeper 
tone. ‘The larva of Hylisinus Fraxini closely resembles that 
of the genus Scolytus, and is found in a state of activity in the 
elm during the month of August. The larvee of another little 
beetle, enemy of the elm, of the genus Hylargus, very closely 
resemble those of Scolytus. 

We have hitherto described the enemies of the elm among 
the more minute representations of the beetle tribe. But the 
British giant of the race—the great stag-beetle, whose con- 
spicuous size and form soon make him well known to the merest 
tyro among young entomologists—is also, in its larva stage, a 
formidable enemy of this devoted tree. The larva of this large 
insect is of proportionate size; and whenever it does attack a 
tree of this kind, which is fortunately of not frequent occur- 
rence, as the insect is not very abundant, the dangerous nature 
of its inroads may be easily conceived, as it not only bores into 
the very heart of the wood, but also, with still more fatal effects, 
penetrates the main roots in a similar manner. <A tree-enemy 
upon fully as large a scale, is the Cossus Ligniperda—the wood- 
boring Cossus. This is a large moth, one of the handsomest 
our British kinds ; the caterpillar of which is large, and protected 
with strong scales, and also furnished with powerful mandibles, 
which enable it to eat its way into the core of the hardest woods. 
Jt prefers, however, the pear and the willow, but is frequently 
found m the elm and other large forest trees. The damage 
done by this powerful larva to the trees it attacks may be 
readily imagined, as it lives from two to three years in the tree 
before its transformation takes place; and at its full growth 
leaves a clear bore through the solid wood of from half an 
inch to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. 

There are many interesting circumstances known regarding 
the habits of the Cossus Ligniperda; but the present paper has 
reached its extreme limits, which also prevents the description 

VOL 1I.—NO. I. D 


34, Insects Injurious to the Elm. 


of many other insects injurious to the elm, both in its healthy 
and partially-decayed state. 

Having examined the habits of certain xylophagous, or 
wood-eating insects, and having probably arrived at the con- 
clusion that the ravages of the Scolytus and his congeners have 
a more direct connection with the decay of elm-trees than 
increased drainage, or any other cause, it is time to consider 
the seemingly dangerous method of cure proposed and prac- 
tised by M. Robert, and to ascertain the principles upon 
which it must have been adopted, and upon the applicability of 
which its success must depend. 

The sap, the basis of which is mere rain-water, that is to 
say water impregnated with carbonic acid, is taken up by the 
roots, and ascends between the solid wood and the bark, 
causing the formation of a coating of new wood all round the 
trunk, which coating, in its soft state, is termed alburnum. It 
is again through this alburnum that the surplus sap, vitiated by 
the functions 1t has performed, has to descend, eventually escap- 
ing through the spongeoles, or fine fibres of the roots, into the 
earth. Now, if the ascent of the nutritious moisture be im- 
peded by the scoring of the Scolyti, or still worse, if, in its 
vitiated state, its descent be impeded, and its escape prevented, 
the most fatal consequences must necessarily ensue in some of 
the forms caused by the morbid retention of a poison. If, 
therefore, M. Robert can remove the bark, and with it the 
Scolyti, giving to the alburnum (relieved by his process from 
the further injury of its enemies) the opportunity of exerting 
its reparatory functions, which he asserts that it is able to do 
even when deprived of its natural protection, the external bark, 
which, he assumes, it is able to restore, then M. Robert appears 
to have hit upon a mode of cure which, under favourable cir- 
cumstances, may prove successful. It is, of course, necessary 
that in removing the bark care be taken to spare in every way 
the alburnum. My neighbour Dr. Evans informs me that 
a goat in his garden had eaten all the bark from the lower 
part of the trunk of a tree to which it was attached, but that 
not having seriously injured the alburnwm the reparatory 
powers of that substance not only repaired its own injuries, 
but reclothed itself with a coating of bark. And thusit is seen, 
in “ rmging” operations, pursued for the purposes of destroy- 
ine trees, that the alburnum itself must be cut through, as well 
as the outer and inner bark, and then, no doubt, im the great 
majority of cases the tree invariably dies. 

It may be stated, in support of M. Robert’s theory, that 
the bark is, speaking by analogy, the bone, rather the skin 
of the tree, and bone, as is well known, is the result of a kind 
of organic action which has to an unusual extent the power of 


Insects Injurious to the Elin. SO 


reproduction. A singular link between the forms of vegetable 
and animal bone, if one may be permitted the use of such 
fanciful terms, is to be found.in Crustaceee. The bone of the 
lobster, for instance, unlike that of the higher forms of animal 
life, is entirely external, that is to say, what would be the 
internal spine, etc., in a fish or a quadruped is the shell of the 
lobster. ‘This external casing of bone is not only capable of 
renewing itself in case of injury, but does so naturally every 
year, the creature shedding its external bone to allow of the 
. annual growth of the body, which it clothes and protects. The 
inner coating, analogous to the liber and alburnum of the tree, 
having not only an inherent power of protection when deprived 
for a time of their usual external covering, but having also the 
power of re-clothing themselves with a new one of the same kind, 
suited in dimension to the increased size of the body. So that 
we need not be altogether surprised at the reported success of 
M. Robert in doing for the tree that which the lobster does 
once a year for itself. It may be added that there is even a 
“tree lobster,” as one may term it, which also does for itself 
that which M. Robert pretends to do for diseased oaks or elms ; 
that tree, is the well-known oriental plane, which sheds its old 
bark every year, a circumstance which may partly account for 
its retaining its health in the very heart of smoky towns, where 
other trees perish, probably from the clogging of the pores of 
the bark, and so stopping that necessary expiration which trees 
earry on by them as well as the leaves. Just as im the human 
being, the pores of the skin allow of a continuous expiratory 
action supplemental to that of the lungs. The process of M. 
Robert, then, may possilly, should it be found practicable, be 
effectual, in permanently checking the ravages of the Scolytus 
family ; but it cannot touch the inroads of the Cossonus, and can- 
not repair suck damages as that effected by the larva of the 
stag-beetle and the Cossus Ligniperda. 

I should add, in conclusion, that I have just received a 
letter from a botanical physiologist who has entered into direct 
correspondence with M. Robert, and who, after that corre- 
spondence (as before) is decidedly of opinion that the procédé 
flobert, as the French would say, is certain to be fatal to any 
tree upon which it is fairly put to the test. A series of careful 
experiments can alone decide the question; and if judiciously 
carried out, would, no doubt, lead to the elucidation of many 
facts with which we are at present but imperfectly acquainted.* 


* The question raised in this paper is of great interest as a matter of vegetable 
physiology ; but whatever may be the result of further experiments, we cannot en- 
dorse the done theory.—ED. 


36 Star Finding. 


STAR FINDING. 


THERE are few more delightful occupations than paying telesco- 
pic visits to the hundreds of beautiful objects which the heavens 
present, and which are accessible to the possessors of very 
moderate optical means. A beginner need not be discouraged 
by the difficulty incidental to the nature of the pursuit. Let 
him commence with such a work as Mrs. Ward’s elegant Tele- 
scope T'eachings,* and he will find himself insensibly prepared 
for the consideration of more complicated problems, and the 
prosecution of investigations of a more elaborate kind. Many 
interesting stars require instruments of considerable magnitude 
and power, but Mrs. Ward has shown much that may be accom- 
plished with a two-inch glass; and Mr. Webb has furnished a 
valuable guide to all the principal astronomical wonders that 
can be reached by objectives up to double that size.; The names 
of the principal stars in our hemisphere may be learnt from 
maps, globes, or the excellent planisphere published by Smith 
in the Strand; but as the constellations are among the most 
bungling contrivances of human ingenuity, it is by no means 


* an easy task to trace their imaginary boundaries in the sky, or 


to know exactly where to point the telescope to the less con- 
Spicuous members of their bewildering groups. In the papers 
for which our readers are indebted to Mr. Webb, very simple 
directions are given for finding, at a specified date the objects 
which he describes, but, inasmuch as the whole celestial 
framework appears to revolve about our earth, and each month 
—each hour—presents a different aspect of the firmament to 
our gaze, it is very desirable to possess accurate and scientific 
means adapted to any time, by which, if the weather permits, 


_ the object we wish to examine may be infallibly found. Such 


an aid the professional astronomer possesses in the equatorial, 
and several opticians have produced equatorial stands adapted 
for portable telescopes of moderate size. They are, however, 
from their price beyond the reach of many students, and even 
if they were cheaper and less cumbersome, they would not 
answer all the purposes that can be served by a small instru- 
ment readily carried from one room to another, or to any 
part of a garden or field from which a good view can be 
obtained, and the adjustment of which can be readily made. 
Such an instrument has been produced by Messrs. Horne 
and Thornthwaite, and since we first alluded to it im the 

* Telescope Teachings; a Sketch of Astronomical Discovery, containing a 
Special Notice of Objects coming within the Range of a Small Telescope. By the 
Hon. Mrs. Ward. Groombridge and Sons. 


+ Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. By the Rey. T. C. Webb, Incum- 
bent of Hardwick, Herefordshire. Longmans. 


Star Finding. 


“Notes and Memoranda” of our May number, we have given 
it repeated trials, and have likewise obtained an excellent 
report of its merits from a practical astronomer, to whose 
care we consigned it for several weeks. It consists of a 
steady bed, shown in the annexed sketch, furnished with two 
spirit-levels and three adjusting screws. The polar support, 
m, has the slope required by the latitude of the place in 
which it is to be used, and being fixed by the makers at the 
right angle, becomes free from error and always ready for work. 
a@ 1s the telescope, rotating 
on an axis and carrying the 
index e to any pomt of the 
declination circle d; h is 
the hour circle, and 7 its 
index, moving with the tele- 
scope and giving the right 
ascension in hours and de- 
grees. 

If the student has a con- 
venient place commanding 
a sufficient sky view, he can 
if he pleases fix the instru- 
ment upon a pillar after hav- 
ing adjusted it according to 
the directions given in an 
excellent paper issued with 
it, but in many cases it will 
be convenient to preserve its 
portability, and then it must 
be brought to the right po- 
sition each time it is em- 
ployed. Ifrequired merely 
as a finder it will be sufficient 
to set the two circles for the 
right ascension, and declination of the pole star as given in the 
Nautical Almanack, or any other ephemeris; the polar support 
should then be approximately pointed to the star, and the bed 
accurately levelled by the adjusting screws. If this is properly 
done a very trifling movement will bring the star into the cen- 
tre of the field marked by the cross wires, and the instrument 
will be ready for use. In this way we obtained good results as 
a finder, and for measurements of position sufficiently near the 
mark to distinguish and ascertain the name of any star not 
easily confounded with its near neighbours. ‘This mode of pro- 
ceeding has certain obvious advantages, but every possessor of 
the instrument should accustom himself to use it from one par- 
ticular situation where he has obtained a good meridian line, 


38 De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis. 


and can adjust it so as to work with the greatest accuracy of 
which it is susceptible. The method of doing this is clearly 
explained in Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite’s paper of direc- 
tions, and many of our readers will remember the mformation 
furnished by Mr. Burder in the articles published in Recreative 
Science on a portable equatorial. 

The student will gladly avail himself of this instrument (1) 
to find stars, or other objects he wants to look at; (2) to dis- 
cover the name cf any star by determining its exact position, 
and then ascertaining from an almanack or chart what body it 
must have been to have occupied such a position at such a 
time; (3) to obtain the time within a few seconds by watching 
the transit of any star convenient for such a purpose. It also 
possesses a high educational value, affording to teachers the 
means of giving their pupils an initiation into many processes 
of practical astronomy that ought not to be neglected in any 
civilized school. 

The construction of the star-finder displays considerable skill. 
To render such an instrument generally useful, it was necessary to 
make it handy, cheap, and not easily deranged, and in these 
several particulars Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite have suc- 
ceeded extremely well. The telescope, although small, is of 
excellent quality, giving a good view of Jupiter’s moons, and 
clearly showing « Lyra as a double star, on a bright summer’s 
night. The movements are smooth and steady, the gradu- 
ation accurate, and every part firm and strong. ‘Thus the 
student will find it an excellent aid to his fascinating pursuit. 


DE LA RIVE ON THE AURORA BOREALIS.* 


M. pr 1A Rive conceives that two general facts relating to the 
aurora are established: 1st, “the comcidence between the ap- 
pearance of the Boreal and the Austral Auroras: 2nd, that 
auroras are atmospheric phenomena which take place within 
the limits of the atmosphere, but not beyond it.” He seeks to 
show that the positive electricity carried to high regions of the 
atmosphere by vapours from tropical seas, and which the trade 
winds accumulate near the polar regions, acts by mduction on 
the negative electricity with which the earth is charged. ‘There 
results, he says, “a condensation of contrary electricities in 
those portions of the earth and the atmosphere which are 
nearest each other, and in consequence a neutralization in the 

* Comptes Rendus, June 9, 1862, p. 1171. A similar account is given in the 


Archives des Sciences (Gentye), No. 54, and accompanied with a drawing of the 
apparatus. 


De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis. 39 


neighbourhood of the poles, which takes place under the form 
of more or less frequent discharges as soon as their tension has 
reached a limit which cannot be maintained. These discharges 
ought to take place simultaneously at both poles, since, as the 
conducting power of the earth is perfect, its electrical tension 
ought to be sensibly the same, with some shght differences 
arising solely from accidental variations in the stratum of air 
interposed between the two electricities. There are thus upon 
the earth during the appearance of the auroras two currents 
proceeding from the poles to the equator; but if the discharge 
only takes place at one pole—the southern for example—there 
is no longer in the northern hemisphere a current directed 
from north to south, but a weaker current directed from south 
to north. ‘This change gives an eastern declination to the 
compass-needle instead of the western declination which occurs 
when the boreal discharge takes place and the current 1s directed 
from north to south.” 

“Tt is known that auroras are accompanied by more or less 
intense currents in telegraphic wires. Mr. Walker m England, 
and Mr. Loomis m America, have made them the subjects of 
special study, and they have found that they vary constantly 
not only in intensity but likewise in direction, coming alter- 
nately from north to south, and from south to north. If we 
remember that the currents propagated by telegraphic wires 
are derivative currents gathered by means of large metallic 
plates sunk in the moist soil, it will appear that these plates are 
not slow to polarize themselves under the chemical action of 
the current which they transmit, and that they ought to deter- 
mine in the wire which unites them an inverse current as soon 
as that which occasioned their polarization ceases or diminshes 
its force; and all observers know that the auroras exhibit a 
very variable and perpetually oscillating light.” 

“The change which occurs in one terrestrial current when 
the discharge passes from one pole to another—from the north 
to the south, for example—determines also a change in the 
direction of the currents of the telegraphic wires, which im that 
case flow from south to north, instead of from north to south ; 
but the new current is much weaker than the old one, except 
when it unites with the secondary currents arismg from the 
plates.” 

““There is, however, a great difference in the results obtained 
when, instead of observing the currents collected by telegraphic 
wires, we study the perturbations of the magnetic needle which 
accompany auroral manifestations, as in the latter case there 
are neither electrodes nor secondary currents, but only one 
direct action of the principal current. This current may vary 
in intensity, but it must always operate in the same way (méme 


4G De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis. 


sens) while the discharge takes place at the same pole, whether 
it be strong or weak, and it will not change its character until 
the discharge nearly ceases at the nearest pole, in order to 
operate almost exclusively at the other ; whilst by reason of the 
effect of secondary polarities a change in intensity suffices to 
produce a change of direction in the currents of telegraphic 
wires. ‘This difference is strikingly shown by comparing the 
graphic representations of purturbations in the magnetic needle 
observed by Mr. Balfour Stewart at Kew, during the auroras 
of the 2nd September, 1859, with the results of Mr. Walker’s 
observations of the currents exhibited by telegraph wires at the 
same time. I have succeeded in experimentally verifying these 
observations by transmitting the discharge of a Ruhmkorff’s 
coil through rarefied air, placing in the circuit some water 
holding a little salt in solution, and in which two plates of 
metal were immersed. As soon as the principal current was 
weakened or stopped the inverse current was exhibited by the 
plates.” 

“Tn order to reproduce all the details of the natural pheno- 
mena, I caused an apparatus to be constructed composed of a 
sphere of wood about ten inches in diameter, which represented 
the earth, and carried at each pole a bar of soft iron about two 
inches long, and about one inch in diameter. Hach bar rested 
on a vertical cylinder of soft iron to which it was united, and 
thus the sphere was supported. So arranged, the sphere had 
a horizontal axis terminating in two appendages of soft iron 
which could be magnetized by bringing the two cylinders on 
which they rested in contact with the poles of an electro-mag- 
net, or by surrounding the cylinders with coils of wire traversed 
by electric currents. Hach of the iron bars was surrounded by 
a glass cylinder (manchon) between five and six inches in dia- 
meter, and about seven inches long, and in which it occupied 
an axial position projecting into the middle of the glass. The 
two vessels were hermetically sealed by two metallic caps, one 
of which was traversed by the iron bar, while the other carried a 
metal rig upon two arms, the centre of the ring coinciding 
with the end of the iron bar, and having its plane perpendicular 
to the axis of one bar. The diameter of the ring is a little less 
than that of the glass. Stopcocks were conveniently placed to 
allow of a vacuum being formed in the glass vessels, and any 
kind of gas introduced. 

“To use this apparatus, the wooden ball is covered with two 
strong bands of bibulous paper, one occupying its equator and 
the other crossing it from pole to pole, and making contact 
with the two bars of iron. On this last band, pieces of copper 
about one or two-thirds of an inch square are fixed at equal 
intervals with copper tacks that penetrate the wood. All the 


se 


De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis. 41 


copper Squares are arranged in the same meridian. Between 
two of the squares a metallic communication is established 
with the thread of a galvanometer placed about twelve yards 
off, so that its needle shall not be directly influenced by the 
electro-magnet. Having thus arranged the apparatus, the 
paper bands are moistened with salt and water, and the equa- 
torial band is connected with the negative electrode of a Ruhm- 
korff’s coil, which has its positive electrode brought into com- 
munication, by means of a bifurcated wire, with the two 
metallic rmegs which are inside the glass vessels, and in highly 
rarefied air. The discharge is soon seen as a luminous jet 
between the rings and the extremity of the iron bar, sometimes 
im one vessel, sometimes in the other, but rarely in both at 
once, although both are placed under apparently the same 
circumstances.” 

“ As soonas the soft iron is magnetized, the jet spreads and 
forms an arc round the central wire, animated by a rotary 
movement, the direction of which depends on the character of 
the magnetization. It is evident that it depends also on the 
direction of the discharge, but we have supposed this direction 
constant, and resembling that of nature, that is to say, directed 
from the circumference towards the centre. It is important to 
notice that if the air be not too rarefied, a moment is observed 
in which, when the iron bars are magnetized, the rotation 
begins, and the jet not only expands into an arc, but darts 
brilliant rays that remain quite distinct from each other, and 
turn round with greater or less velocity like the spokes of a 
wheel. In this we see an exact representation of what occurs 
in the aurora borealis, when the luminous arcs being all im- 
pressed with a movement of rotation from west to east, dart 
luminous jets in the ligher regions of the atmosphere. These 
jets do not occur unless the iron is magnetized, and they may 
be stopped if the air is highly rarefied, by imtroducing a vapor- 
izable liquid, such as a drop of water. It is impossible to pro- 
duce them if the discharge, instead of being directed, as in 
nature, from the circumference to the centre, passes in an 
opposite direction.” 

M. de la Rive adds, that on examining the galvanometer 
with which the two wires previously mentioned are in com- 
munication, a secondary current will be indicated, its character 
and direction bemg determined by whether the discharge takes 
place at one pole or the other; and he states that he can im1- 
tate the disturbances which the magnetic needle experiences 

when the auroras occur. 


Ad 


CURIOUS ILLUSTRATION OF VEGETABLE 
MORPHOLOGY. 


fr is not uncommon for natural objects to assume somewhat 
extraordinary forms, but perhaps few are more curious than the 
one which I have endeavoured to represent in the accompany- 
ing sketch. This smgular freak of nature was shown to me at 
the house of some friends with whom I have been recently 
staying, and was cut from an ash-tree in a wood near Reculver, 
in Kent. The branch suddenly assumes a flattened form, and 
shortly after separates into two branches, which bear at first 
sight a curious resemblance to the antlers of a stag. Buds 
appear at short intervals, some of them with an approach to 
regularity in their arrangement, others in clusters. The two 
arms, after division, are not exactly in the same plane, the 
small one being slightly foreshortened when the large one is in 
full view. My drawing, though somewhat rough, is, I believe, 
accurate, being made from a pencil sketch and description 
which I took from the object itself. I neglected at the time to 
take the actual measurements, but the length of the large arm 
is scarcely less than eighteen inches. As an example of the 
curious in nature you may possibly deem it worthy of a notice 
in the InrELLEcTUAL OBSERVER. 
Rozert GavsBy. 


A ee ee 


: 
: 
¥ 
z 


The New Metal Thallium. AS 


THE NEW METAL THALLIUM. 


On the 19th June Mr. Crookes read a paper on the new metal 
thallium, before the Royal Society, and on the 25th of the same 
month M. Lamy made a similar communication to the French 
Academy. It 1s from these sources that we are able to lay 
before our readers the followimg particulars :—In March 1861, 
Mr. Crookes announced that a brilliant green line, exhibited by 
some selenium residues, in the spectroscope method of analysis, 
was an intimation of the existence of a new element. In the 
following May he gave a further account of his discovery, 
and named it thalliwm from our Greek @adAos, on account of its 
coloured line resembling the hue of vigorous vegetation. M. 
Lamy, who was not aware of Mr. Crookes’s investigations, made 
a subsequent but mdependent discovery of the same green ray, 
which he noticed in the spectrum of a specimen of selenium 
extracted by M. F. Kuhlmann from the refuse of chambers in 
which sulphuric acid had been prepared by the combustion of 
pyrites. Both chemists set to work to isolate the new metal ; 
Mr. Crookes operating with crude sulphur distilled from Spanish 
pyrites, and containing thallium to the extent of one or two 
grains in the pound; while M. Lamy used the selenium pre- 
viously mentioned, from which he obtained salts of thallium that 
gave up that metal by voltaic action. Mr. Crookes’s process 
will be found in the Chemical News, July 5th. In substance 
it consists in dissolving the metals out of crude sulphur or 
pyrites by strong hydrochloric acid, to which nitric acid is 
gradually added. The solution is evaporated to drive off the 
nitric acid, and a little sulphuric added if required. It is neces- 
sary to stop the evaporation before the solution becomes pasty. 
It is then diluted, gently heated, filtered, rendered alkaline 
with carbonate of soda, treated with an excess of cyanide of 
potassium free from sulphide of potassium, heated once more, 
and filtered again. It is in the solution left after these pro- 
cesses that the thallium remains, which is precipitated by sul- 
phuretted hydrogen. If cadmium and mercury are present, 
warm dilute sulphuric acid will remove the former, and the 
sulphides of thallium and mercury are separable by dilute 
nitric acid, which dissolves the first, and leaves the last. The 
nitric acid solution is evaporated to dryness, the residue dis- 
solved in hot sulphuric acid, and the thallium precipitated by a 
piece of pure zinc. ‘Thus obtamed, the new metal looks first 
like a deep brown powder, which soon changes to a heavy black 
granular precipitate, to which fusion in hydrogen gives a co- 
herent form. 

Thallium bears a strong physical resemblance to lead. Its 


4,4, The New Metal Thallium. 


specific gravity is about 12, that of lead being 11°36. Mr. 
Crookes says it is not so blue as lead, and M. Lamy describes 
it as less white than silver, and resembling aluminium in hue. 
A fresh cut surface has a brilliant lustre, which tarnishes quicker 
than lead. It is soft enough to be scratched with the nail, and 
very malleable, but possessed of little tenacity. It readily marks 
paper, leaving a trace “‘ with yellow reflexions.” M. Lamy 
also states that it becomes yellowish if rubbed with a hard 
substance, a change which he attributes to oxydation. It is 
SO sensitive in the spectroscope that the last named authority 
affirms that it may be discovered in one fifty milhonth of a 
gramme of one of its compounds. Mr. Crookes describes two 
oxides of thallium, and thinks that a third is probably formed. 
To one he ascribes basic properties, and we presume it is that 
which is formed when the metal tarnishes, and which M. Lamy 
states to be alkaline, with an odour like that of potash. The 
next oxide, containing more oxygen, Mr. Crookes names thallic 
acid, which may be obtained in a crystalline form. 

Todine, bromine, sulphur, and phosphorus can unite with 
the new metal, and it combines with sulphuric, carbonic, chro- 
mic, phosphoric, and other acids. 

.M. Lamy exhibited to the French Academy an ingot of thal- 
hum weighing fourteen grammes, obtained by a Bunsen battery 
from chlorides which he formed by chemical means. The new 
metal is far from rare, and is very likely to be extracted im 
sufficient quantities to serve some economic use. Its spectro- 
scope properties are highly important. In the words of Mr. 
Crookes, “‘The green line of the thallium spectrum appears to 
be unaccompanied by any line or band in other parts of the 
spectrum. A flame of sufficient temperature to bring the 
orange line of lithium into view produces no addition to the 
one thallium line; and an application of telescopic power strong 
enough to separate the two sodium lines a considerable distance 
apart, still shows the thallium line single. I consider, there- 
fore, that I am justified in stating that thallium produces the 
simplest spectrum of any known element. ‘Theoretical inquiries 
into the cause of the spectrum lines, and their relation to other 
constants of an element may be facilitated when we know a 
metal which gives rise to luminous vibrations of only one 
degree of refrangibility. The remarkable simplicity of the 
thallium spectrum offers a strong contrast to the complicated 
spectra given by mercury, bismuth, and lead, the metals to 
which it has most chemical resemblance.” 


Artificial Halos. AS 


ARTIFICIAL HALOS. 


Everyone who has used an air-pump has noticed the clouds of 
vapour which form in the receiver after a few strokes of the 
piston, and which arise from the air yielding up a portion of its 
moisture as the pressure is diminished. If these vapours are 
viewed by light transmitted from a candle, prismatic colours will 
appear ; but to sure a distinct and fine halo Mr. Slack recom- 
mends the following plan: Place a large receiver on the princi- 
pal plate of an air-pump, and a small one, holding about a 
quarter as much as the former, on the smaller plate. Turn the 
stopcock so that when the pumps are worked the small receiver 
only shall be exhausted, the large one remaining full. When 
a vacuum has been made, place a taper on one side of the large 
receiver, and stand on the other, keeping the eye on a level 
with its hg¢ht, and suffermg no other illumination in the room. 
Now, suddenly turn the stopcock so that a portion of the air 
from the large receiver shall rush to the exhausted smaller one. 
At this moment a splendid halo will appear, and it is an inter- 
esting and by no means an easy task to notice the exact order 
im which the colours are exhibited. The average decision arrived 
at m one set of experiments was as follows: A yellow light 
seemed to rush from a circumference to a centre, forming a 
luminous disk, which passed instantly to a red-orange hue, and 
then to a brilhant emerald-green. At this point the green 
central disk appeared to expand outwardly and take the form of 
an external ring, the centre resuming an orange tint. The 
changes in the phenomenon are exceedingly rapid, and their 
duration so infinitesimal that itis impossible to note and describe 
all the chrematic effects, among which some rich purple rings 
will be observed, before the luminous circles disappear. Thoss 
who wish to perform the experiment with an air-pump that has 
only a single plate should connect its receiver by a pipe and 
stopcock with a larger closed vessel full of air, and then proceed 
in the manner described. A large amount of light is injurious 
to the results, as it overpowers the coloured rays. If the expe- 
-ximent were performed on a large scale it would probably be 
effective in a lecture-room. 

Under ordinary circumstances there is enough moisture in 
the air to give rise to pleasing effects; but they will become 
more striking if a few drops of water are sprinkled on the 
inner surface of the large receiver. -It is also interesting to 
notice the variations that occur if alcohol or liquid ammonia 
be substituted for the water. In the latter case, the clouds 
formed are denser and less evanescent. 


46 Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory. 


RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE KEW 
OBSERVATORY. 


LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w. 


1862. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 9°30 a.m.; 2p.m.3; and5 p.m. 
rai respectively. 
- Calculated. Be 2 
Bea Ke Vp leeele | S| a 
2) eee |e) | eee eens |e 
& Sua eect Wein Werte le eames Ot deve Masi cles 
a EE Hen mesa lime gilfe outers sesh NE ao sens : 
ee By clesed | Se (eee) | NS eae car |) es es Direction of Wind. 
9° oa ay PY fy Se 268 & ei) 3, 5 
iy Bo |8 ze | o | ° | Hes 18 fa os 
A ee iti) tarspoi eel cle hala 
: a\3 : 
i 
inches. & A inch, 2 x - inched 
April 1 | 29°854) 46°9) 43°5) -89/-298) 53:2 | 41:2) 12-010, 10,10) SW by W,SW by S, SSW. 
3 2 | 29°629) 48:0) 49-9/ 1:00) °372) 54°9 | 49:4) 5-5/10, 10, 10 SSW, S by W, 8. 
s 3 | 29°672| 49°6) 43-6) -81) 299) 58°3 | 48°1/10-2) 3, 7, 4| SW by W, WSW, WSW. 
> & | 80:074| 44:4) 39°6) -84)-260) 53:2 | 45:0) 8 2/10, 9, 6 N, W, — 
» 5 | 80000} 45-2) 45:0) -99/ -314) 54:3 | 44-2) 10-1} 8, 10,10} S by W, SSW, SW by 8. 
| AG ane Boo Wi boot pecas Ml odo. || aia). een esa a8 ecules 
» 7 | 80°171| 44:5) 45-4) 1-00) -319} 51:5 | 47-6] 3°:9/10, 10, 10 NNE, NN, N. 
» 8 | 80°237| 40:3) 40:5) 1:00) 269; 46°0 | 426] 3°4/10, 10, 10] NE by N, NE by N, ENE. 
» 9 | 80:048] 40°5| 41-1; 1-00) °275) 47°0 | 41:1) 5°9)10 10,10 NNH, N, N by W. 
» 10 | 29:946) 43°1) 43-0) 1-00) °293) 51:5 |42°3) 9:2/10, 10, 10 NW, NE by #, N. 
| » L1 | 30:173| 36:9) 33-6) -89)-211) 45°0 | 41-1; 3°9/10, 10,10 NE, NE, N by E. 
yy) 12 | 80°253) 344,186} -57| 123) 42°2 | 30°7|11°5) 2, 7, 4 N by E, N by W, NW. 
| malieS a Cone hone ilk cane nop lth Ziostes) AS er ULI Ale) abe Besar 
» 14 | 30:098 37°8) 24°8| -63)°154) 45:2 | 29-2) 16:0] 6,10, 10INWbyW,WNW,NW byW,| - 
3, Ld | 80:128) 38:3} 30°8) -75)-185) 46:1 | 33°6)12:5,10, 7, 7 NH, NNE, NE by N. 
yy 16 | 30-080) 42°7| 34-5) -75}°218| 49°8 | 29-0) 20°8| 8, 10, 10 W by 8S, WSW, SW by W. 


Month) } 
Means. {| 29:980| 47-5] 40°5| -80| -278 127]... ae 2575 


17 | 29:855| 46:4] 31-4) -59|-195| 54-7 |44-1/10°6) 2, 7, 3 NW, WSw, W. . 
SS tose He aoe TM nes sr Aid AME STATE Ghia dat ha 
», 19 | 29:822| 49°6) 44°8| -85]}-312) 56:1 | 48:0] 8-1] 9,10, 9 SW, SW, Sw. 
Bee ho edie sills don litetes Uy baer dense (MSE OMe Oph WEB ye ies te: on 
», 21 | 29:973] 53:3) 46-5] -79]-331) 61-1 | 45-7|15-4| 6, 9, 9| SW by W, SW, SW by S. 
35 22 | 29:628] 50-8} 43-6} -78|-299, 59-5 | 46:3] 13-2) 9,10, 4) SW by 8, SW byS, SSW. 
35 28 | 29°756| 50°7/ 38:1] -65|-247; 58:9 | 46°7/12:2| 7, 6, 6 WSW, WSW, W. 6 
y 24 | 29:967| 53-7] 41:6] -66|-279| 61:6 | 44°3/17:3] 8, 3, 3} SSE,SbyE,SbyE. | - 
, 25 | 29-838] 61:0) 53-6] -78]-422) 705 | 45:6} 24-9] 9, 9, 2 SSW, SW,SW. . 
» 26 | 29°886/57°4' 50-4) -79|°378) 64:8 |51:2/13-610, 7, 8} SH by 8S, WSW, WSW. | - 
Be LR IMS SHIP se llth 205 GD Aia AES ING ells! an on 012 
» 28 | 80:150)57-7| 45°4| - 66) 319] 65:7 | 41-4) 24-3] 2, 3, 1 E by 8, —, NNW. -000 
» 29 |80°243) 55:0) 41-0) -62/-274| 62:9 | 39-1/ 23-8] 0, 0, 0 E by 8, E, E. -000 | 
>, 30 | 30:028] 58:6] 43°8) -60}-302} 66°3 | 44-9| 21-4! 0, 0, 2) SEbyS, NEby E,E. | -000 


47. 


rew Observatory. 


Meteorological Observations at the 


Hour. 


= 
bo 


A. M. 
a 
COONAN E ODE 


- 
tt 
RPDe 


Pp. M. 


oo 


Pee 
NFOOGSTH Tf why 


SG GO G06 OH Mat 
bo 
ING 


418|609 


| WORD Whey Se ONTO OONTONC ODE OLW OUNT 


210/112 


MDOONDAAB 


—_ 


OH |) 
16) 5] 11) 12 
19; 4 9 10 
19} 4) 14; 9 
19} 3) 18) 12 
23} O} 13) 12 
21} 2) 15] 15 
23) 6] 19] 15 
24) 9} 15) 17 
19, 11) 17) 18 
21) 11) 16!) 13 
22) 8] 15] 15 
TH eA alte all 
18} 9} 16) 14 
16; 8) 15) 14 
16) 9} 16) 12 
19} 8) 15) 9 
15] 10} 15) 10 
16} 9} 14) 8 
14; 9} 16] 10 
10} 10} 13) 12 
9} 9} 13) 10 
7 Lh 15) 9 
1) 2 AIBN ty 
Gl eee LO |S 
398)182/344284 


OAMNMWNWNWHEOWWEE FHS orb Ow 


Aprit 1862, 


10/11) 12) 13) 14 


Mow Saou 


15 


us 


Or Ot Or Or 


O32 Or O1cs bo C bo 


229 


ewok bp WOSe eb He 


17 


340 


HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON’S ANEMOMNTER, 


18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24.) 25 
9} 14) 16) 4) 5) 18) 12) 4 
8} 12) 13) 5) 7} 18) Tl) 2 
7| 11) 18} 4] 8) 16) 7 2 
CG\ MGS eS BS 0a | eter 
A Woe ALE ata toy aM] ey 
ZA SAY ata fey lsh ats} a] 
9} 15) 12) 8] 14; 18) 6 38 

11} 20) 13} 14) 18) 19) 10) 8 

12) 19} 14) 15) 25; 19) 18, 3 

15] 21) 17] 16) 21; 24) 15] 6 

15] 28) 17| 14) 26) 20) 17] 7 

20] 25] 19] 12) 24) 22) 21) 47 
17| 25) 16) 18) 25) 27) 21) 8 
18] 26) 18) 18] 27| 27) 21) 7 

21| 24) 18] 17) 27) 26) 20) 8 

24) 25) 16] 16] 26) 24) 17] 9 

22| 380) 17] 16] 27) 26) 17) 14 

21) 25) 16] 14} 24) 22) 11) 12 

18) 25; 12) 10} 238) 18) 6) 10 

19] 25) 8] 9] 22) 14) 7 10 

16] 21) 10} 7} 20; 10) 4| 6 

15| 22) 14; 7 20; 7 5 6 

14) 21) 9} 10) 19; | 4) 6 

15] 19) 5) 7] 16) i) Sie 4 

3471501 326 255)452/440|268/148 


© NT Oo OF O13 ST OF C9 OUD 


213 


a 
WORE WNN UTD OOCOHISG How AAW pow 


123 


30 


PWOrFNOEOAEDERDMDANTNEWWNWHENH EO bo 


rary 
SOMMMDe 
BwoTwor 


82 |892/385 


48 


Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory. 


RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE 


Reduced to mean of day. 


KEW OBSERVATORY. 


LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w. 


Temperature of Air. At 9°30 4.m., 2 P.m., and 5 P.M., 


Barometer corrected 
_ to Temp. 32. 


inches. 

29°936 
30°193 
30°067 
29°961 
30°010 
29°748 
29°904 
29°612 
29°618 
29°610 
29°891 
29:°867 
29°879 
29°898 
36°132 


30-015 


Temperature of Air, 
Dew. Point. 


| 


62:3) 537 


51:4) 42°1 


42-7) 41°0 
(i's 539 


65:1) 53°8 
523] 51-1 
53°6) 46°2 


48:5) 46°8 


49°8)| 43°9 


sia] aad 


48°6, 409 
47-0, 42:0 
4.4°3) 44-2 


52°6| 509 
60:1| 476 


630] 661) 


29°716) 55°9| 44-1 


29-493 


29°770 


29°761 
29°949 


30-074 
29:880 


29°886 
29°795 
29°445 
29°937 


}| 29-854 


43°3| 39°7 


514) 346 
53°7| 52°3 
64:2) 45°7 


57-0] 42-5) 


53°9) 62°7 


57°4| 55°5 


60:0] 55:3 
57°3| 55:7 
553| 49:9 


—— 


53:9} 47°5 


Calculated. 


& 
y 


Tension of Vapour. 
Maximum, read at 9:30 

A.M. on the followin 

day. 

Minimun, read at 
9°30 a.m. 
Daily Range. 
clouded, 


Relative Humidity. 
Proportion of Sk 


respectively. 


Direction of Wind. 


ar 
. 


NN 
Go Or 
SK 
a 

oN 
He 

ORE 


v 
v 


= 


ie) 
ny 


N by E, NNW, NW by W. 


Sy: 


1 
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. 
ce 


~T 


~ 
v 


lee) 


. 


s 
vy 


S O71 © 


és 


=I 


ue 
~) 


be 
. 
S 


v 
v 


et 
TWO OO sTeO OM Oe 


See : 
SISSON S: 


== 
SSO MOM 


. 
v 


v 
~~ 


s 
v 


= 


.) 
v 


eS 


~~ 
) 


be |: 
Oqod | = 


Pe 

os 

a 
Ceeoonk CONOR 


== 
RSS SSNSHS 


. 


. 
v 


tO ~T: 


. 
L 


Neko) 


~~ 


v 
v 


Bee 


. 


S, SSW, S by W. 
W, N, N. 
ENE, B, E by N. 


WSW, SSE, S by E. 


WNW, SW by W, SW. 
SW, SSW, SSW. 
SW, SW, SW by S. 
WSW, SW by W,—. 


N, —, EbyS. 
NE by N, NNE, N. 
NE} ENE, NE. 
NNE, N, N by W 
NNW, NW, W. 
WSW, W, NW, 


W by 8,—, 8 
S by E, SW by 8, SW by W. 
SSW, W, WSW, 
W, W, W. 

SW, SW by S, SSW. 
W by 8, SW by W, SW by S. 
W, WSW, SW. 

SW, SW by 8, W. 
SW, WSW, SW. 
ENE, SE by 5, E. 

E by N, SSE, SSE. 

W by N, W by 8, W by N. 


HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETER—Muay 1869. 
(or) = 
x | Hourly 
Day. |1)2/3)4)5/6/ 7) 8/9/10) 11/12/13} 14/15 | 16] 17/18] 19] 20] 21 | 22/23 | 24| 95/26/27] 98 29] 30/41 Nena 
> 
Ss Hour. | 
S EA 8| 16) 12} 20 6| 18/16) 4) V7) 18] 5) ab) 12) 7] 5] 8) a a] S| 6) alan! ¢, 4] 10) 9 Gl Vlog “en 
= 2 4| 13] 13] 20 8 6) 17) 2) 12; 5) 2 8 4% 18} 8 3) 1) OF 2 &| 5) 13) 9} 5] El | aol 4} fF 75 
8 q | 6| 12| 9) 18 Bie) b2) Bi 1S) 7) 2 7) 15) 4 5) 20) al ell 5) 2) eh Fl Flees) tlio sl ae “ice 
S At Gl Lee a 22 7 6) 12) 1) 13; 8) 3 6 5) Is} 6] 5] a! 1! 8] 120) 8] 15] 11) 5] 9 11] 12; 5) < 7-9 
Z = | 9 12| 9| 18 6} 7) V7} 2) 14] 6) 8] 12} 4| 14) 5] 5] of 3| 2] g| 12] 2x) of 6] al q4l dol si er ral 9 
S |i) @ | 4] 12) 20 17 3} 8/13) 7) 14) 4} 1) 11] ) 18] 5| 2 1] | 2] 6] 10] 20, 8| x] 4] 10] al 4) / 74 
hol 7 2| 11| 10| 20 2} 10) 15) 7) 17) % 1) 14) 10) 17) 7 3] 2) 1) 2 10] 15) 20) 8} 9] El 14] 11) 4! 9g 9-4 
® g | 7| 11| 20| 20 6| 5] 23) 6 14) 9) 2) 15) 13) 18] 6} 5] 38] 1| 5] 11) 16] 22] 10] 19) 5] 15] 91 6 95 11-0 
Seles g | 8| 14) 21) 15 3| 7 22) 10) 13; 8} 2) 17) 15) 22) 7 1) 2| 1) 6| 18] 20] 20] 10) a0! §| 36] 10, 5] 97119) 41-2 
= 10 | 1) 14) 23; 16) ) 3) 8] 25) 12) 15) 8} | 16) 15] 20; 7 3] 3] 8) 12] 11) 17| 20| 9) 9) 11] 15| 11) 4 asl iol 41-7 
S az | 2 14) 22) Wo) 7) 4) 4) 22) 13) 13) 9) 5) 15) 15] 15) 6] 5] 38] 5] 16) 5] 21) 20] 10! 10] 10) 17| 101 4] 4:| | 419 
2 12 | _“| 18| 26) 10) 7 6 4) 24) 21) 20) 12] 6| 15) 18) 15) 6] 6} 4) 8] 17] 17| 14) 23] 10) qo| 11/ 181 11, g0| 9] 8| 95 
Ss y_| 10) 10) 27) 17 11) 8) 7] 27) 26) 15, 9 2 13) 17) 13] 5] 4) 5) 5] 18] 15] 18| 23) 11| 31/ 10] 18) 101 13] a2] 9| Jo-8 
3 9 | 16) 11) 30 12 6} 15) 25) 23) 15) 12; 1) 11) 16) 18; 9) 38] 4) 6| 21| 19) 20) 22) 12) yo] 14] 15) 7] 13/41) ol 13-9 
> 3 | 19| 14) 30 15) 3) 14) 25) 24) 12) 12) 1) 14) 14) 15] 9} 5] 5] 4) 23) 11] 19] 19| 12) 8] 18] 15] 5] 17/431 6| 13-0 
® 4 | 17| 12) 82 17) 7] 13) 22) 23) 11) 12) 3) 15) 13) 14) 8| 5] 4} 9) 21) 1(| 16] 19) 11) g| 15] 15] 5] q4la3l | 13-0 
nS | 6 | 16| 10) 31 15; 9/ 18) 18] 18) 14) 11) 5) 16] 14) 12) 9} 5) ¥ 7 20) 20] 14) 24) 12) g| 11/18] 8! 21 4| 18:4 
2 #4 g | 12) 11) 30 10} 10 18) 15} 15; 13; 9) 7 16] 16] 10} 9] 5) 3) 11) 20] 10] 16] 17| 13) 7 9) 14] 10) 90 5] 19-4) 
TS |* | » | 19) 9] 80 10) 12) 17/ 10; 15) 12) 6| 3) 13) 14) 14) 6) 5] 4] 7| 14) 14] 14| 18] 10| 4/ 10) 18] 11] 99 4\ 115 
2 g | 11) 10) 35 8) 10) 10; 8) 15) 8 4} 2 14) 16) 17) 5) 3] 38] 5] 18] 9) 18] 15] 5) 3) 4 10] 11) a6| 7¥\ 1) 100 
S 9 | 12| 9) 82 “| 13| 13) 7| 12) 7 5) 8] 10) 14) 14) 3) 4| 2) 4) gs} 19) si 10l 7 9] 6 9| 8) 27 3, 9:3 
3 190 | 10) 7| 32)118/ 12) 9| 12) 7/18; 8 5) 9} 8] 11) 11) 5) 3] i) 93} 143i del a4ia9al 7] 9] 7 a0! 7 a8 6| 9-6 
S laa | 14] 11) 31 14; 8) 18; 5] 15} 8 4) 6 11) 12) 10; 5] 2] 1) 38/13] 8/13/12] 6] 3/10/13! 7 a 9°5 
= 12 | 18] 13] 22 8) 12) 15; 2) 15) 7 4) 7 7 10) 5) 5] 5] 1) Oj] 18] 4] 12/16] 6 4) 10! 7| 5l 73h 9 4] 93 
a= —__—— | | ry | | | | | | SS | RE CUI 
Total 
yay 239/281/544) 499 |166 246/389 /303/305|184) 90)291/290 338|152] 97| 63| 82/267/249/333/483|223/1661192/312\217, 645 |179| 9-7 
ove- 
ment. | 


VOL. II.—NO. I. 


50° Meteorological Observations at the Kew. Observatory. 


RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE 
KEW OBSERVATORY. 


LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w. 


} 

1862. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 930 a.0.,2P.M., and5?.m., 

respectively. 

| | Calculated. 

3 Ss Saaaar nana een IS 

| Be i ue Hele 3 a Rain— 

| pay of Bo : | ts eh bi Soe 3d 2, Se read 

ee aed Selle teeth el |S Bee Direetion of Wind. AM, 

| 2) Pea MN v@icee el) Naa) os 

i) oO 

| a a a A 7) 

} inches.| i }ineh. Bi N k 2 inches. | 

| June 1 ah 508! Lopate) aeobr ene lh <axeeelen SOS UGG na ee oe “003 

| ,, 2 |80:043|575|48:6| -74/:356| 72:0 | 47-0| 25-0] 0, 1, 7) W by N, W by N, W. -000 | 

| ,, 8 | 80:019)54-1/51-3| -91|390| 63-7 |54-5| 9-2] 9,10, 9 SSW, SW, SSW. -000 
» 4 | 80112) 57-9) 44°47] -64/-311) 680 | 45:9] 22-1] 4, 3, 1] WSW, SSW, S by B. ‘O15 
» 5 | 29 '719] 50-7| 47-3) -89| 340] 61-9 | 47-2] 14-7] 9,10,10| SW, W by 8. SW by 8S. | 000 
», 6 | 29°638) 56-2) 53°5) -91/-420] 64:8 | 53-5] 11-3] 6, 10, 10| S by W, 8 by W, S by W.| -302)) 
» 7 | 29°768| 57°8| 46:4} -68,-330| 66-7 |36:6]30:1| 3, 3,10) SW,SW by 8, SW by S. | -026)) 
POM ice dale \iseea tl lace licee coal MORO Me hese MICE Tire nae 390 = "056 | 
» 9 | 29:973] 53:2] 44-7} -75|-311) 61-9 | 44-2] 17-7] 6, 7, 3) SW by W, WSW, SW. 04:7 | 
» 10 | 29°894! 52-3] 41:4) -69|-277] 63-0 | 42:1] 20-9] 6, 10, 10 8, SSE, S by E. "098 | 
», 11 | 29°377| 54:8] 49°9| -85|-372] 64-6 |50-7/ 13-9] 3, 9, 5| SSE, S by B, 8 by W. 070 
5, 12 | 29-293] 50-8] 51:8] 1-00] -397| 60-1 |52°0| 8-1/10,10,10, SE by S, S by E, S. "213 

|» 18 | 29°564| 51-4) 50-0] -95| 373] 62:5 | 52:2) 10-3) 8, 9, 7| SW, SW by 8, SW by 8. | 445] 

5, 14 | 29°658) 49-5) 51-3) 1-00) -390| 60-1 | 49:9/ 10-2) 8, 8, 10 SW, SSW, S by W. ‘076 
sy ss PMB eal ae Nice | OOS i Aare WLS oleae. 202 see “408 | 
» 16 | 29:976) 51:2| 46:3) .85) 329] 64:6 | 49:6] 15-0] 7, 9, 10 WNW, Nw, —. 246 

3, 17 |80-009| 56:0) 46 9| -73|-336| 65-7 | 47°8| 17-9| 5,10, 10) WSW, W, NW by W. .040 

| 3, 18 | 29:969| 50'8| 43:8] -79|°302| 61:5 | 50:3] 112) 3,9, 8) N by B, N, N by W. "093 | 
», 19 |30-050| 52:3] 42°5| -71)-288] 61:4 | 48:4) 13-0] 9,10,10) - NW, WNW, SW, 047 | 
55 20 | 29°900| 49-9) 44-3] -82|-307| 58-4 |50°2| 8:2] 7,10 10) NW by W, WNW, W. -037 
», 21 | 29°756| 52-2/ 46-1] -81|-326) 60:4 |50°5| 9-9/10, 10, 10 W by S, SW, W. -000 
OOM cot ous Hee il, Ors NOL Oth eee iin "001 | 
» 23 | 29872) 54-4] 44-91 79) -313) 65-4 |526/196I10, 6, 3/SWbr S, NNW, NW by W.| -076], 

4, 24 | 29 9281 57-1/51-5| -83|-393| 68-0 | 47-8] 20-2|10, 9, 8| WSW, SW, NW by W. | -000 

|, 25 | 80°185| 53-5 47-4] -81| 341) 63°3 |49°8]13-5|10,10, 7) NW by N, NNE, NE. -000 

|» 26 | 30-003] 57-4) 49-6| -77|-368) 67-4 | 50-4) 17-0) 8, 8, 10 W, NW, W by 8.. ‘000 | 

|» 27 | 29°769|51-1| 40-1] -69] 265| 67°3 |51-7| 15-6] 9,10, 7) W hy 8, W by §, W. -000 
» 28 | 29905] 52°6| 43-4} -73/-297| 61-9 |44°6]17°3] 7, 8, 8| NW, WSW, NW. -010 | 

M20 A | leelecon h @e0 Waereiaoel.., -000) 
, 30 |29°910| 53-7| 39-21 ‘61/257, 64-3 5331110 8, 7, 8) NW by N, NW, W. 057 

Mea} | 29-850] 58:5|46-7| -80| -336 151 2:366 


I 


——— 


HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETER.—Jonz 1862. 
Howl 

Day. |1|2)/8/4|5|6 | 7/8 | 9 10/11) 12/18)14|15/16]17/ 18/19/20} 21) 22] 23] 24/95/26 | 27128 /29|/s0| yoy 
= PI Y|—OO aS — ss Oe OS Oe re ees ss) | OO | | | | SS 
= Hour. 
= 12 5 y , : 
iS ri | 3 2 7 4 7 5 27 a1) 5] 6} 14] 14] 21) 16 7 3) 2] 7 5) 5 5] 9} 7 5) 2] 2] 4! ol 5] 9 78 
g 3 | 3 6 7 8 4) 4) 24) 11) 2 5) 14] 17] 20] 18) 7 5] 3] 8| 412] 6] 10/11] 6] 5) 3| 5] 8] 6 111 8s 
S 3 | 3 6 7 7 4) 4 24) 7 3) | 15/ 16] 48] 14) 9| 3] 3] 5| 7 10| 5] 9| si gl si al 4| iol 5| 9] Bo 

4 | 4 4 8 6| 2| 10) 24) 6| 9] 9] 14] 14] 18] 15] 10] 2| 9] 4 6] 6| 7 ol iol 5| 7 4] sl vl alaol 75 

S |.| 5 | 8 5] 6-5) 4) 10] 23| 8| 5| 3) 15| 13| 20] 17] 9] 2] 2 10] 5] 8| 8)'11/ 101 5| 6] Gl sl si Gl gi ga 
bd -j2 4 6 | 10 4 4) 6 2] 10) 21) 7 5] 5] 18] 16| 22| 15] 11) 4| 4/15) 5| 9) 91 14] 10] 7 tol. 6] 7 sl sl 6 o4 
2 |4| 7 | 12 3 6 6 3 13) 22] 9] 6] 3] 18) 19] 23) 16] 14) 2] 4] 15) 5] 19] 11] 14/ 13] 6| 19) 7] 91191 5| 91 aod 
s g | 18 3) 7 9} 4 15] 24) 11| 8] 5] 17] 18| 22] 17] 15] 7 5] 20) 9] 14| 10] 16] 19] 7| 19] 5| 191 15] 6| 10] ya-7 
x g | 14) 2] 10 8) 10] 19| 25) 16, 7 9) 22] 17| 23] 15] 18| 6| 8) 20] 18| 15] 19] 15] 18| 101 15| 7] 12, 14] | 14] 49-4 
S 10 | 13 3} 10) 10] 10] 18) 25) 17| _7| 11) 18) 20| 24] 12] 12] 6| 5| 20] 10) 15) 15] 17| 12) 10] 11/ 10] 131 13] 7] 131 q9-9 
% (a1 | 16| 3] 14) 12] 6} 18) 80} 29] 10] 15] 18) 18) 28] 13] 17] 8] 7| 20] 10] 12| 14] 13} 14) 10/ 10| 10] 151 14] 11) 131 33-9 
& 12 | 14} 3] 18] 13] 4/ 22) 28) 24) 7| 13) 21) 20| 35] 11) 16] 7 §8| 20) 8] 1 | 19] 15) ©] 10| 13] 12) 17| 18| 101 131 qa-a 
S ¢ 1 | 12| 3) 19] 15] 11) 25) 28] 27| 8] 14) 24] 22] 32) 14] 19| 3] 10] 19] ¢| as) 11] 13) 20/ 13] 13) 11) 11] 15) 12] 151 ag 
5 3 | 13) 4| 20| 13] 16| 21] 30] 23) 9) 14| 20| 23/ 81] 12] 12] 12] 101 19] 7 1 | 32] 12] | 10| 11) 1o| 18] 16) 10| 141 ya-g 
S g | 18| 4 17| 13) 16) 25] 29| 18] 13/ 17| 22| 23] 29) 19] 11| 11] 10] 19) 9] +| 11] 12) «| 9| 13] 13] 17] Jel lol 181 q4-7 
3 4 | 18} 3| 17| 14} 15) 27] 27| 13| 15] 15] 26] 22] 28) 16] 7) 16| 8] 13} 8] ‘| 11] 18] 7 1a] 8] 19) 17] 18| 15] 11) q4-4 
S |. {8 | 15 4% 20) 20} 9] 29) 26] 17] 13) 14) 24) 25] 22| 19] 5] %| 10| 17| 4] 1c} 3] 12 9] a1] 8] 12] 14| 44] 18] 11| ya. 
"S  |#4 6 | 15] 8 12) 17 6] 81) 20] 17| 12] 8) 23) 20] 20| 10 11) 6| 7 18) 8| %| G13} 7 9| ¥% 8] 13) 10| 13) 101 qo-9 
-S fei {7 | 12} 5) 11) 15] 2| 82] 19] 13] 10 7| 28] 23] 25] 12) | 9| 13] 11) 3] <| | 11] 2} 10] 4} 7 13| 8] 15] 11) 416 
S g | 13) 7 12] 9 3] 25/18] 8) 7 8) 18| 29/ 21) 1o| 6| 5] 7 9| to] €| §/ 11) a/ 5| 4] @| 7 siidl Zao 
3 9 | 9 6 12) 7 2) 83] 15] 7 7 5] 15] 27| 20] 9] 7 s| 3] G| 5) 7 7 8] 2140] a] 6 7 8] 13| 8 go 
= 10 | 4) 7% 6 10) 4/ 34) 12} 7 6} 10} 14) 24] 19) 7 5] 2] 5] 8] 7 1c) 6] tol 5] 10] 9] 5| 6) 3112] 7| gx 
8 kaa | 7 7) 12) 12) 5] 84} 11} 4%] 6] 13] 17] 27/17) 7] 5] 1) Bi al 7 | | ae] 5 7] 5 a] 7 4|18| 71 64 
S 12 | 2 6 8| 5] 5| 25] 12) 6| 6} 10] 16) 23| 18; 8| 4 3) 7 3] 4) 8| 9] 9] 5] 8] 4] 6] 6) el 10] «| vo 

Total 

MELIY. |, [240|11.4)267 247 154/492 544 307 179 217|441|498 556 308|284/127|151/302 170|236/214|288|199|198|185 180/238) 248/225|246) 11-1 

Ove- : 

ment. 


52 Transit of the Shadow of Titan. 


TRANSIT OF THE SHADOW OF TITAN—DOUBLE 
STARS—THE MOON—OCCULTATIONS. 


BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, F.R.A.S. 


- TRANSIT OF THE SHADOW OF TITAN. 


A totaL eclipse of the sun to the inhabitants of the earth of — 


course infers the passage of the shadow of the moon over the 
face of our globe. In consequence, however, of our comparative 
nearness to the sun, and the resulting breadth of his disc, the 
cone which this shadow forms tapers so rapidly that its point 
frequently fails to reach the earth: in annular eclipses it falls 
short of it; and even in the largest total ones it is but of small 
dimensions, its section at right angles to the axis seldom at- 
taining a breadth of 180 miles, though it may be greatly drawn 
out in length if it falls among the shadows cast by the rismg 
or setting sun. The case is very different with the projection 
of the shadows of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The 
sun’s diameter is so much lessened to them from their greater 
distance, that the cone of shadow is always prolonged far 
beyond the surface of the primary, and a dark spot is formed 
there every time that a solar eclipse takes place ; and while the 
shadow of our satellite upon the earth would be barely visible 
from the nearest planets with powerful telescopes, and from the 
remoter ones would be quite imperceptible, the corresponding 
phenomenon in the system of Jupiter, and, as it now appears, 
in that of Saturn also as far as the largest satellite is concerned, 
is sufficiently conspicuous to be witnessed by us with com- 
parative ease. 

In the case of Jupiter, these shadow-spots have been 
famiharly known, since Campani, the celebrated Italian maker 
of refractors of long focus, first observed one in 1658 ;* but as 
regards Saturn, they have been hitherto little noticed. This 
has been owing in part to the exceeding distance and minute- 
ness of the object; for it is certainly something extraordinary 
to contemplate the effect of a solar eclipse at a distance never 
less, often much more, than 760 millions of miles; but it is 
quite as much due to the different arrangement of that planet’s 
system. The general plane of the orbits of Jupiter’s satellites 
differs so little from that of his own path, that the shadow of 
three of the satellites invariably, and that of the fourth for the 
most part, falls on his globe once in every revolution, and every 
“new moon” there brings a total solar eclipse ; but the inclina- 
tion of the whole system of Saturn to the plane of his orbit 1s 


* Cycle of Celestial Objects, I. 171. Arago erroneously gives the discovery to 
Cassini I. in 1664. 


Transit of the Shadow of Titan. 59 


so great, that, excepting about the time when the ring presents 
its edge to the sun—once in fifteen years—the apparent paths 
of the more distant satellites are ellipses open enough to carry 
them and their shadows clear above and below the ball, while 
the specks cast by the nearer ones would be imperceptibly 
minute. Consequently, the records of such’ phenomena are 
very few, and will naturally relate to the shadow of Titan, the 
6th (reckoned outwards) and largest satellite, whose diameter, 
about three-fourths of a second, according to Struve, con- 
siderably surpasses that of the others. Sir W. Herschel was 
the first to perceive a transit of this shadow, 1789, Nov. 2, 
and notwithstanding his gigantic mstrumental means, he does 
not appear to have repeated the observation. 1833, May 7, 
Gruithuisen, who had been watching the ring from March 27 
‘with a 4-inch Frauenhofer achromatic, and had found the knots 
of ight gradually decrease, and at length disappear together 
with it, says, ‘I saw, almost in the position where Schroter 
placed his two knots in the eastern, now not visible, ansa, two 
satellites, of which the nearest cast its shadow close upon 
the shadow of the ring, which I at first was inclined to hold as 
the shadow of a knot in the ring. I saw besides, at a greater 
distance, the 6th and 7th satellites, to the W. of the former 
ones.” This last expression seems not very intelligible; however, 
there can be little doubt from his aperture that he mistook the 
names of these two latter; and as little, thatit was Titan whose 
shadow hesaw. 1848, Sept. 20, Schwabe, the great observer of 
the sun, says that he perceived with the same kind of instrument, 
upon the very narrow line of the shadow of the rmg, between the 
centre aud the W. limb of Saturn, an excessively minute black 
point; but he does not refer it to the shadow of a satellite; 
and possibly this, and even Gruithuisen’s observation, may have 
related to one of those curious irregularities in the shadow of 
the rmg which have been remarked by Schréter, Lassell, and 
Dela Rue. If so, Herschel’s observation must have stood alone 
till the present year, for Dawes sought in vain to recover the 
phenomenon at the last disappearance of the ring in 1848 and 
1849. During the present season, however, several persons, 
led on, as was fittme, by that most clear-sighted and accurate 
observer, have been more successful. He saw it first, April 15th, 
with his magnificent 8j-inch Alvan Clark achromatic. Mr. 
Lockyer, of Wimbledon, caught the next transit on May Ist. 
The following one, on May 17th, was witnessed by several ob- 
servers, and as I was fortunate enough to be one of the number, I 
have thought that a brief account of its appearance might not 
be without some interest.. I had entirely lost sight of Dawes’s 
announcement of the transit for that evening, and turned my 
telescope on Saturn, solely with a view of ascertaining whether 


54 Double Stars. 


any trace of the ansze might still be perceptible; they had, 
however, entirely vanished, leaving only a narrow black band, 
where the ring presented its unenlightened side to the eye. 
On this band | instantly perceived a spot, which a moment’s 
reflection convinced me must be the shadow of Titan, then 
preceding at a short distance the N. pole of Saturn; at first I 
imagined that it projected on each side, like a knot in a black 
thread ; but a little consideration—especially as at the time 
Thad a mistaken impression as to the breadth of the rmge— 
showed that this would give it an exorbitant magnitude, and I 
speedily satisfied myself, as far as the light of 5} inches of 
aperture, and an atmosphere not particularly favourable, would 
permit, that it stood out only from the N. edge, along which 
I watched its progress from about + to 4 of its path across the 
ball. Four satellites were unquestionably visible; it was 
doubtful whether a small object at a short distance sp, was 
Japetus, or a star; probably the latter. Two belts were readily 
made out. ‘The following diagram will give a general idea of 
the phenomenon, but it will be borne in mind that it has no 
pretension to accuracy. 

The unexpected size of the shadow on April 15th was 
noticed by Dawes, and it is very 
singular that this strange ano- 
maly, detected some time back 
in the system of Jupiter (see 
IntetiucruaL Ozserver, No. III. 
p- 232), should thus seem to be 
repeated in that of Saturn. The 
°° | same observer was highly suc- 
cessful in watching the transit of 
| May 17th, and on the 25th he 
was probably the first to witness an immersion of Titan into 
the shadow of Saturn. 

The subsequent transits on June 2nd and 18th were invi- 
sible from the state of the atmosphere, at least in many places, 
and I am not aware that any account of them has appeared. 


DOUBLE STARS. 


The evenings are now beginning to close in, and our time 
for study is proportionally extending. Wega, the lovely gem 
of the zenith, must be postponed, from her inconvenient eleva- 
tion ; but we shall use her as a pointer to other objects. We 
will draw a long line from Arcturus, our pointer of last month, 
towards the H., sloping somewhat downwards, and a shorter 
line from Wega to the 8., tending towards the W. These two 
lines will intersect each other at right angles near a 2nd mag’. 


Double Stars. 55 


star, which though not a brilliant object, takes the first rank in 
_ a dull neighbourhood. This is Al Ra, alias Ras-al-hangue, in 
the head of the large though inconspicuous constellation 
Ophiuchus, whose legs reach below the serpent which he is 
carrying, a long way towards the 8. horizon. A few degrees 
W. and slightly N. of this star, is a much smaller one, Ras-al- 
Gjathi, marking the head of Hercules, another widely extended 
constellation in an unaccountably undignified posture, kneeling 
on one knee with his feet uppermost. ‘The heads of these two 
singular figures thus awkwardly “laid together”? for thousands 
of years, ought to be familiar to the student as guides in a 
neighbourhood barren to the eye, but full of telescopic interest ; 
the head of Hercules itself giving us a grand object ;— 

24. a Herculis. Ras-al Gjdtla., 4°5. 118°7. 3% and 
53. Orange and emerald or bluish-green; intense ccerulea, 
according to Struve. Sir W. Herschel considered that the 
principal star was variable from 3 to 4 mag. in 603 days: 
Struve has not confirmed it, but has seen the companion some- 
times 5, at others 7 mag. Argelander, who doubts this, fixes 
the period of the large star at 664 days; Baxendell at 83:5 
days. This “lovely object,’ as Smyth calls it, ‘one of the 
finest in the heavens,” though looking so much like a system, 
has not as yet been proved to be in motion. A power of 80 
will draw it out and show its colours in a good glass, though of 
course it will gain in beauty by magnifying. 

Doyrovlerculis: .25°°9. 1739) (1830-71). 245. W757 
(1839-62). 4 and 83. Greenish white and grape-red. Struve 
durmg 7 years marked the companion “albacinerea.””? I 
thought it bluish-green in 1850. Fletcher made them yellow 
and red, 1851°67; Dembowski, yellow and blue, 1854, 1855; 
white and blue, 1855, 1856. ‘This is probably a binary system, 
and if so, is a fair instance of a very remarkable fact, which, 
however, does not depend upon such slender proof as this 
single example, but is evident in other cases and ways, that 
the brightness of stars 1s, at least in many cases, no indication of 
their real distance. Here we have an 8} mag. star in all pro- 
bability as near to us as its very much largercompanion. ‘This 
conclusion once admitted—and how it can be resisted, it is diffi- 
cult to see—very remarkable consequences follow ; speculations, 
however ingenious and beautiful, which assume anything like a 
general distribution of stars throughout space according to 
apparent magnitude, fall away of themselves; and but for the 
modern improvement in instruments, which renders the deter- 
mination of parallax no longer impossible, we should be left in 
entire uncertainty as to the real marshalling of the starry host; 
and even that ‘‘longior scala astronomorum,” as Kepler calls 
it, while it confirms the overthrow of all arrangements based 


| 
| 
| 
| 


56 Double Stars. 


on apparent brightness, is applicable, from the extreme minute- 
ness of the measures required, and their rapid decrease and 
disappearance with increasing distance, to so few cases, that 
we still feel bewildered as at the entrance of a mighty labyrinth; 
so very few are the known points, the unknown, practically 
infinite. 

To find 6, run a line N. from a, which will strike it at 10° 
distance ; it will be the first conspicuous star in that direction, 
and, though not large, the brightest in a considerable region. 

26. 6 Serpentis, 28. 196°2. 3 and 5.  Bright-white 
and bluish-white; under the very best vision, both bluish. 
Dembowski gives yellow tints, probably from his telescope. 
Motion is suspected in this very fine pair, which may be found 
by drawing a line through the two stars called Yed (see No. 15) 
towards the right, and bending it a little upwards; this will 
pass, at some distance, through three stars, of the 3rd, 2nd, 
and 3rd mags. the centre one, which is by far the brightest, 1s 
a Serpentis; the furthest is our object, 6. 

27. « Herculis. 314, 9°7. 53 and 7. Pale-yellow and 
reddish-yellow. Probably stationary. To find it, run a line 
through the ‘two heads,’ a Ophiuchi and a Herculis, and 
bend it a little upwards; ata considerable distance it will strike 
upon $ Herculis, 3 mag., the brightest star in a wide region ; 
a little s p from 8 lies a smaller star, y, in the wnbent line 
through the “two heads.” Another line through 6 and y, bent 
aslittle upwards, falls upon several minute stars close together, 
rather further from y than y is from 8: « isthe most to the W. 
of these. It is also nearly ina line from y Herculis to 6 Ser- 
pentis (No. 26). 

28. 53 Ophiucht. 41°:3. 192°5. 6 and 8. Greyish and 
pale blue. This beautiful object, which seems only optical, is 
rather minute for the naked eye in twilight, but it is not diffi- 
cult to find, as it lies due s of a, only 3° distant; the space 
between a Ophiucht and a Herculis being about 5%’. 

The number by which this and other stars are designated, 
is that assigned by Flamsteed, and denotes the place in his 
catalogue, in the order, not of brighiness, but of Right 
Ascension. 

Before it sinks too far towards the horizon, we had better 
turn to— 

29. 12 Canuwm Venaticorum. Cor Carol. 198. 227°. 
25 and 63. Flushed white and pale lilac, 1837-4. There is 
some doubt about these tints. Herschel II. says, in 1880 or 
1831, ‘with all attention, I could perceive no contrast of 
colours in the two stars.” His father calls them white, m- 
chning to red; Struve, in 1830, made them white ; Sestini, in 
1844°5, yellow and blue; Smyth, again in 1850°5, full white 


The Moon. od 


and very pale; in 1855, pale reddish-white and lilac; Dem- 
bowski, in 1856, white and pale olive-blue. [found them, about 
1850°5, with a ou jinch object-glass, white or a little yellowish 
and tawny or lilac ; 1862°2, with 53 inches, the same colours, 
but with very little contrast ; 63 seemed rather orange-tawny, 
but became bluish when its light was materially reduced by 
the passage of a thin cloud illuminated by the Moon. These 
variations are probably due to instrumental and personal dif- 
ferences ; but as this may not be the case in some other pairs, 
an imstance like the present deserves to be studied, with a 
view of deciding between real and apparent changes of colour. 

This fine pair has been relatively fixed for 57 years, but has 
a common proper motion. It is easily pointed out, in the 
middle of a vacant space below the Great Bear’s tail, by a lone 
line from Polaris through Alioth, or « Urse Majoris, the 5th 
star of that-constellation, counting from right to left. 

For a reason the reverse of the last, we will take a fine 
object in Cassiopea before it attains an inconvenient altitude. 
This constellation, ‘‘ the Lady in her Chair,” is generally known 
from its resemblance to the letter W, the top being towards 
the Pole; the student will find it about the beginning of August 
in the evening, bearmg N.H., at some distsnce to the right of 
the Pole Star, but at a somewhat lower elevation. 

30. 7 ESSE GEOR Si som (hesOOh yet dade eh Sms 
(1854-17). 4 and 74. Dull white and lilac. Herschel II. 
and South gave red and green. Sestini, yellow and orange ; 
Struve, flava and purpurea: so Fletcher. Smyth calls this a 

“superb physical object,” with a period of about 700 years, 
and a considerable proper motion of nearly 2” in R.A., and 
x in Declination annually. Hyre Powell reduces the period to 
18] years. We have here a striking instance of the fact re- 
ferred to under No. 25, the equal distance from our eye of stars 
of very different magnitude. It is readily found by learning 
the letters of the five conspicuous stars, which, beginning at 
the right-hand end of the W, and reckoning backwards, are £, 
a, y, 6, e. Our object is nearly ina line between a and ¥, nearer 
to a. Smyth could see it with two inches of aperture. 


THE MOON. 


The surface of our satellite is at once a very easy and a 
very interesting object of telescopic research. As not merely 
the general arrangements of its lighter and darker portions, 
but even the greater irregularities of its ‘“ terminator,’ or 
boundary of light and darkness, are visible to the naked eye, 
it is evident that the smallest telescope will suffice to give us 
some curious information ; while instruments of moderate size, 


58 The Moon. 


such as are now becoming both cheap and common, will bring out 
details enough to occupy, in their close study and careful deli- 
neation, the leisure hours of many along year. This branch 
of astronomy will be found peculiarly within the reach of the 
numerous class of amateurs whose telescopes are furnished 
neither with micrometers nor clockwork motions; and it is 
one in which they may do good service, provided only the 
judgment of the eye is good in estimating proportions, and the 
hand fairly practised in the most desirable acquirement of 
drawing. This latter is, indeed, an acquirement—accomplish- 
ment, in the ordinary sense, seems too trivial a name for it— 
of more value than the inexperienced may be aware of; for it 
is found that the habit of representing what is seen reacts 
upon the mode of seeing, and the accuracy of the hand in- 
creases the discrimination of the eye, so that a practised 
draughtsman distinguishes more, especially in a complex object, 
than. one ignorant of design, even with a naturally keener 
sight. The micrometer is by no means so necessary in this 
pursuit as in the observation of double stars, since, however 
desirable it may be to fix the principal pomts in a lunar survey 
by actual measurement, the details may be quite as well filled in 
by hand; while, should a micrometer be employed, the trouble 
of arranging an artificial ilumimation is avoided. Schroter 
employed, in his numerous delineations, a contrivance called 
a “projection machine,” which consisted merely of a white 
surface, divided by parallel lines into numerous small squares, 
placed at a convenient distance from the eye, and exposed to 
a suitable illumination. His telescope being of the Newtonian 
construction, this surface was supported by a bar fixed perpen- 
dicularly to the tube at its mouth, and thus he was enabled 
to view at the same time any lunar region with the right 
eye in the eye-piece, and the divided ‘surface with the left 
eye, unaided, across the open end of the telescope, so that, 
by means of a paper similarly divided into squares, he could 
make drawings with greater accuracy than could be attaimed by 
the eye alone, though inferior to that resultmg from the use of 
the micrometer. ‘his method of projecting the image on a 
divided scale (whence the name of the apparatus) is now found 
useful for microscopic purposes: it would be difficult to attach 
it to an achromatic telescope ; and if measurement is desired, 
the object might be more conveniently attained by inserting in 
the focus of the eye-piece a little divided glass scale, which may 
be obtained of Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite, 121, Newgate 
Street; or the photographic image of a scale, which I had tried 
by a friend some time ago with a very fair prospect of success, 
and which has since, 1 understand, been advertised for sale. 
However, a practised eye, capable of estimating pretty sharply 


| 
r 


The Moon. 59 


multiples or fractions of any assumed distance, as well as bear- 
ings or angles of position, will leave little to be desired by an 
amateur in this matter, as our details are relatively fixed, and in 
subsequent comparisons it is easy to leave a margin for the 
differences of eyes, or of the same eye at various times, without 
the risk of mistakes in identification. 

The intention of the papers, of which this is the commence- 
ment, will be to pomt out to such of our readers as may feel 
disposed to take up this interesting pursuit, some of the most 
remarkable features of the moon, more especially with the hope 
that those who possess sufficient optical means and leisure may 
be induced to study them and delineate them with care, and 
thus assist in accumulating a body of evidence which may, by 
ultimate comparison, be found to possess much value. Not- 
withstanding the worthy labours of our predecessors, there is 
plenty of room here for the diligent co-operation of many eyes 
and hands. Schrdéter’s exemplary fidelity in observing and 
recording was not well seconded by his pencil: his designs are 
coarse and rough, and contain little of the finer details. Rus- 
sell’s lunar globe and maps are beautiful and mgenious, but not 
accurate enough to possess much value as standards of refer- 
ence: a globe of the moon wu relief, by the same observer, may 
be seen at the South Kensington Museum, but, unlike the mar- 
vellous production of Madame Witte described in Herschel’s 
Outlines, can only be regarded as a curiosity. Lohrmann’s accu- 
rate and ugly ‘‘ sections”? comprise, like the views of Schréoter, 
only a portion of the moon. The continuation of his work by 
Schmidt, the present Director of the Athens Observatory, if 
completed, seems to be unknown in this country. Beer and 
Madler’s great map speaks for itself as a noble production 
of industry and skill, and, especially as illustrated by the 
corresponding two volumes entitled Der Mond [The Moon], 
makes the nearest approach to a complete Selenography ; yet 
the little attention I have been able to give has convinced me— 
and my opinion is fully borne out by that of a very diligent 
observer, Mr. Birt,—that, in some regions, at least, the minuter 
details are less carefully entered than might have been expected 
from the general style of the work. 'The drawings and models 
of Nasmyth are of very limited extent, and the promised publi- 
cation of Dr. D’Orsan has not yet appeared. On the whole, we 
are quite justified in saying, that after all that previous ob- 
servers have done, there are many desiderata in the state of 
our lunar knowledge. It is pleasant to be able to add, that 


the deficiency is, in a’ great measure, such as may be supplied 


by amateur cbservation. Not only are the general outlines 
satisfactorily settled, but many of the minuter configurations. 
The details which are wanted are chiefly such as are calculated 


60 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


to throw light upon the mode of formation of the surface, upon 
the existence of continued eruptive action, and upon the presence 
or absence of atmospheric variations indicated by illusory ap- 
pearances of change. An attempt will be made, in a future 
paper, to poimt out the conditions under which such inves- 
tigations may be attended with success. 


OCCULTATIONS. 


These, during the present month, are few. The moon, as 
viewed from Greenwich, makes a near approach to 39 Ophiuchi, 
6 mag. on the 5th, at 9h. 4m.; to & Arietis, 44 mag. on the 
16th, at 10h. 34m.; A’ Tauri, 44 mag. immerges, Aug. 17th, 
Ith. 26m., and reappears at 12h. 18m., followed by A’, 6 mag., 
at Ih. 88m. and 12h. 35m. respectively. These two stars le 
a little s f from the Pleiades, in the direction of Aldebaran. 


PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 


BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 


GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—Juine 18. 


Ratsen Beaches or Scortanp.—In reference to a paper of Mr. 
Geikie, an account of which appeared in the InreLrLEectUAL OBSERVER, 
vol. I. page 319, Mr. W. Carruthers made a communication in which 
he stated that in the section of clay, sand, and gravel near Leith, 
described by Mr. Geikie as part of a raised beach elevated since the 
period of the Roman occupation, not only have medieval pottery 
and tobacco-pipes been found as described by Mr. Geikie, but a 
medizeval jar has been met with in the sand beneath. The so-called 
“Roman” pottery was stated by Mr. Carruthers to be of medizva! 
age, on the independent authority of Messrs. Birch and Franks of 
the British Museum; and he believes that the beds in question are 
mainly of late and artificial formation; he does not, however, argue 
from this that there is no evidence of a late upheaval of the central 
part of Scotland. 


On tHE Suppen Destruction or Fisnes in THE SeA.—The for- 
mation of deposits contaiming the remains of fish in vast numbers 
was illustrated in a very interesting manner by Sir William Denison, 
Governor of Madras, who, in a letter read before the Society, stated 
that when steaming between Mangalore and Cananore, on the west 
coast of India, he found that for some time after the south-west mon- 
soon the sea was offensive with dead fish, killed by the great mass of 
fresh water poured into the sea during the season of the monsoon. 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 61 


CHEMICAL SOCIETY .—June 26. 


ARTIFICIAL Propuction or OrGaxic Compounps rrom Boguerap 
Napursa.—At the last meeting of the Chemical Society Mr. Greville 
Williams, F.R.S., read a paper, in which he stated that he had suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the iodides of several alcohol radicals from Bog- 
head naphtha. When we consider the almost infinite variety of 
metamorphoses which these iodides may be made to undergo, it is 
evident that an almost inexhaustible mine of research has thus been 
opened. Acids, alcohols, ethers, aldehydes, alkaloids, etc., may 
now be produced from Boghead naphtha almost to infinity. Mr. 
Williams has already procured the iodides of amyle, cenanthyle, 
capryle, and pelargonyle; he has also obtained the new alkaloids 
cnanthylamine and pelargonamine. 


ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—July 8. 


Tue red-letter day of every London entomologist is that one on 
which Mr. Wilson Saunders of Reigate invites the members and a 
select number of scientific men to meet the President and Council 
of the Entomological Society. The day is always commenced by 
an excursion to some neighbouring district; the locality selected 
this year bemg Betchworth Park, Deepdene, and Brockham. The 
day was one of the most brilliant of this uncertain summer, and en- 
abled the visitor to enjoy to the utmost the beauty of the Wealden 


district, that has been so appropriately named the Garden of England. — 


It could be wished, but is hardly to be expected, that each of 
these scientific explorations should be rewarded by the discovery of 
some new species. Though not so fortunate on this occasion, the 
members were gratified by the capture of several rare and interest- 
ing insects, among which may be mentioned Myrmidonia Haworthir, 
one of the rarest of the Staphylinide, also Calomicrus cireumfusus, 
which was found in tolerable abundance on the furze, and Ilobates 
propinqua. At Mr. Bennett’s, at Brockham, the members had the 
pleasure of seeing several young emeus, about three months old, 
reared in this country. These birds may be said to have been suc- 
cessfully acclimatized by Mr. Bennett. The particular species is 
the Dromius irroratus. 

On the return to Reigate, the members assembled at the New 
Hall—an elegant and convenient building, erected for scientific and 
literary meetings—and there partook of a sumptuous repast. After 
dinner, Mr. Saunders made some observations on the exact scientific 
value of entomological collections, stating that study of the habits 
and mode of life of an insect was necessary to render collecting of 
any real value; that collectors were not necessarily entomologists ; 
and that collections, however great, were only the means to, and 
not the end of, entomological science. He also stated that the in- 


62 Proceedings of Learned Socteties. 


ternal anatomy of insects was almost entirely neglected in this 
ecuntry, and that the field was open to thousands of investigators, 
each of whom could do good service to the cause of science. Speeches 
were also made by Mr. Smith and Mr. Dunning, president and 
secretary of the Society; Dr. Gray, General Sir John Hearsey, who 
has shown that devotion and service to science, is compatible with 
the most active discharge of arduous military duties; Dr. Wallace, 
to whom we are indebted for the living specimens of the birds of 
paradise, and several other gentlemen. 


ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 


Mr. T. W. Burr exhibited and described a new eye-piece for tele- 
scopes, which had recently been constructed for him by Messrs. 
Horne and Thornthwaite of Newgate Street. It is an improvement 
on the form of eye-piece much used in microscopes, and known as 
the “ Kellner,” or “ Orthoscopic,” which consists of a double convex 
lens for field-glass, and a meniscus for eye-glass. This combination 
requires no stop, and gives a much larger field than a Huyghenian 
eye-piece of thesame power. ‘The alteration made in the new form, 
which has been named the “ Aplanatic,” consists in replacing the 
meniscus by a plano-convex achromatic eye-glass, made up of a 
double convex crown lens and a plano-concave flint oue, similar to 
one of the pairs of a microscope objective. This preserves the ad- 
vantage of the large and flat field with better definition and freedom 
from colour than the “ Kellner,” and is equally applicable to both 
microscopes and telescopes. 

Mr. Burr stated that he had, during several months past, com- 
pared an “aplanatic ” eye-piece, giving a power on his telescope of. 
125, with a Huyghenian of 123, and found that upon the sun and 


- moon the field was one-third larger, taking in nearly, or sometimes 


quite, the whole disc of those luminaries, while the increased light 
rendered the eye-piece most valuable in observations of the planets, 
nebule, and double stars. 

In the diseussion which ensued, Mr. Pritchard remarked that he 
thought it unwise to depart from the Huyghenian form, which was 
theoretically and practically perfect, but Mr. Burr replied that the 
practical difference in definition and colour of the new form was so 
slight that the increased field and light rendered the experiment 
worthy of trial, and that all improvement would be stopped if we 
refused to depart from an established construction. Mr. Carrington 
also stated that he had found the “‘ Kellner” eye-piece in constant 
use in Germany, especially on comet seekers, where it was much 
valued for its large field, and that he thought the proposed modifi- 
cation now shown very likely to be an improvement, as nearly 
effecting a perfect balancing of chromatic aberration. 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 63 


ROYAL INSTITUTION. 


Gas Guass Fournaces.—At the last Friday evening meeting of 
the Members of the Royal Institution, Professor Faraday delivered 
a lecture, explanatory of the construction and mode of action of Mr. 
Siemen’s gas glass furnaces. In these furnaces the gaseous fuel is 
produced by the combustion of coal in a limited amount of air; the 
products of the combustion which takes place at the lower part of 
the furnace having to passa layer of unignited coal are decomposed ; 
the carbonic acid is reduced to a state of carbonic oxide by taking 
up an additional quantity of carbon; various gaseous hydrocarbons 
are also liberated by the heat acting on the coal, and by the intro- 
duction of water into the burning fuel steam is produced, which is 
decomposed by the heated carbon yielding carbonic oxide and 
hydrogen. ‘The mixed gaseous fuel thus produced passes off from 
this furnace; it consists of the nitrogen derived from the air; this 
constitutes about one third of its bulk, and is a useless ingredient 
as possessing no calorific power whatever; the remaining two con- 
sist of a somewhat varying admixture of hydrogen, carbonic oxide, 
and gaseous hydrocarbons. This gaseous fuel is allowed to ascend 
a vertical tube, and may be conveyed to any required distance before 
itis mingled with air and allowed to burn. Such is the general 
principle of the action. In the furnaces of Mr. Siemen there are, 
however, certain contrivances, termed by him regenerators, by the 
aid of which the heat produced is encouraged in its distribution, so 
that but little of it escapes being utilized. Hence the economy of 
fuel is estimated, practically, at one half. 

The explanation of the value of this process depends on the 
calorific or heat-giving power of the substances burnt. One part of 
carbon, if perfectly oxidized, unites with two aud two-thirds of 
oxygen to form carbonic acid CO,, and evolves sufficient heat to 
raise the temperature of 8000 parts of water one degree centigrade. 
If it burns in a limited supply of oxygen so as to produce carbonic 
oxide, the CO, the amount of heat evolved, would only raise the 
temperature of 2473 parts of water one degree; but when this 
amount of carbonic oxide is allowed to burn in a fresh access of 
air, it evolves the remaining units of heat (viz. 5607) required to 
make up the 8000 produced by the perfect combustion of carbon. 

The calorific power of the hydrogen is very high—being 34,000 
as compared with carbon 8000, and that of the hydrocarbon pro- 
duced may be taken in round numbers at over 12,000; hence the 
heating power of the whole mixed gaseous fuel is equal to that of 
an equal weight of carbon; and as it is capable of being applied so 
much more advantageously, owing to its gaseous form, its practical 
value is in reality much greater. 


64 Gleanings from the International Hxulibition. 


GLEANINGS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 


Propuction or ALCOHOL AND OTHER ORGANIC SUBSTANCES BY SYNTHESIS. 
—IJn an obscure corner of a case in the French department may be 
found a bottle of alcohol, differing in no respect from that obtained 
by the usual process of fermentation, except in its mode of origin, it 
having ‘been formed synthetically. The credit of the exceedingly 
interesting discovery of the possibility of forming this and analagous 
compounds, that have so long been regarded as belonging exclusively 
to organic chemistry, is due to M. Berthelot, who ascertamed that 
when olefiant gas (C,H,) is agitated for a long time with many 
thousand concussions with sulphuric acid (SO,,HO), that sulph- 
ethylic acid is produced as indicated by the following formula :-— 
C,H, + 2(HO,S8O,) = C,H;0,SO,,H0,SO;. When sulphethylic acid is 
heated with water, alcohol distils over, and sulphuric acid remains 
behind. In connection with the artificial productions of alcohol, M. 
Berthelot’s researches on the formation of acetylene are very im- 
portant, as tending still further to break down the distinction be- 
tween organic and inorganic chemistry. Acetylene is one of the 
most permanent of the hydrocarbons; its composition is expressed 
by the formula C,H,. It is produced by the action of the induced 
electric spark, or by the aid of heat from olefiant gas, and is also 
developed by the action of heat on the hydrocarbons benzole and 
naphthaline. Berthelot has succeeded in preparing acetylene by the 
direct union of its elements, carbon and hydrogen. The carbon is 
first purified by the action of chlorine at a high temperature. This 
removes sulphur and metallic impurities in the form of volatile chlo- 
rides. The carbon thus obtained in a perfectly pure state may be 
submitted to the action of hydrogen, aided by the highest tempera- 
ture that it is possible to obtaim, but no union will take.place. In 
the hike manner the inductive spark is equally powerless to effect 
their union. If, however, an electric arc is caused to pass between 
two charcoal poles or electrodes surrounded by an atmosphere of 
hydrogen, union takes place as soon as the spark commences to pass. 
Acetylene being produced, and its production continued as long as 
the electric arc 1s maintained, the acetylene produced around the 
poles may be carried away by a current of hydrogen, and condensed 
by passing through an ammoniacal solution of protochloride of 
copper. In this manner it is easy to obtain large quantities of ace- 
tylene, which is readily liberated in a free state by the action of 
hydrochloric acid. Acetylene is very important, as it presents a 
basis from which other bodies may be obtained ; thus Berthelot has 
demonstrated that by the simple addition of hydrogen it can be 
changed into olefiant gas, and that from olefiant gas alcohol can be 
formed, from alcohol ether, and thus the commencement be made of 
a chain of compounds, all of which have been hitherto regarded as 
belonging exclusively to the domain of organic chemistry. 


Anxcienr EHayprran JeweLLery.—In the gallery of the Turkish 
court there is a case of ancient Egyptian jewellery, taken from an 


§ 
7 


Gleamngs from the International Exhibition. 65 


Egyptian tomb, the date of 1900 years B.c., the time of the patriarch 
Abraham. The collection comprises earrings, necklaces, seal rings, 
and amulets; the workmanship of which is of the most beautiful 
description. The most interesting object in this case, however, is a 
model of what was termed the Boat of Death, in which is represented 
the carrying away of the soul of the departed. A small silver image 
of the deceased queen is placed in the boat, and the rowers sit on 
either side. [In cases near this there are beautiful specimens of 
extremely delicate modern filagree ornaments, both gold and silver, 
from Nubia. It is interesting to contrast this work with that exe- 
cuted by the same race nearly 4000 years ago. | 


Rarip GrowrH or VeGerasxes In Hicu Latitoupes.—In a valuable 
treatise on the vegetable productions of Norway, which has been 
published by Dr. Mueller, in connection with the Norwegian de- 
partment of the Exhibition, some extraordinary facts are related 
respecting the influence of the long duration of light, during the 
summer months, on the growth of vegetables in the higher latitudes 
in Norway. Atseventy degrees N. it was found that ordinary peas 
grew at the rate of three and a half English inches in twenty-four 
hours for many days in summer, and that some of the cereals also 
grew as much as two and a half inches in the same time. Not only 
is the rapidity of growth affected by the constant presence of light, 
but those vegetable secretions which owe their existence to the in- 
fluence of actinic force on the leaves, are also produced in far greater 
quantity than in more southern climates; hence the colouring 
matter and pigment cells are found in much greater quantity, and 
the tint of the coloured parts of vegetables is consequently deeper. 
The same remark applies to the flavouring and odoriferous matters, 
so that the fruits of the north of Norway, though not equal in 
saccharine properties, are far more intense in flavour than those of 
the south. 


Utitization or Waste Tix Prate.—tThe utilization of waste pro- 
ducts is now a subject attracting much attention. Among the more 
remarkable of these processes we may specially direct notice to that 
shown by Kuhn, in the Austrian court, by which the tin from the 
useless scraps of tinned iron plate is obtained in a pure form. It is 
stated by the discoverer that the labour of four men can produce 
yearly from perfectly valueless tin cuttings three hundred weight 


of pure tin, with a large proportion of malleable iron and other pro- 
ducts. 


DistnteGRateD Buack Leap.—The chemically-disintegrated gra- 
phite of Mr. Brodie is a subject of great interest, as it’ affords a ready 
means of obtaining a chemically pure black lead, that by mechanical 
pressure can be aggregated into a solid mass, and employed for those 
purposes for which the best and most expensive plumbago has 
hitherto alone been applicable. The outline of the process may be 
thus stated: the impure plumbago is mingled with chlorate of 
potash, and then acted upon by a mixture of nitric and sulphuric 
acids ; these not only give rise to the evolution of gaseous chlorine 
compounds, but also dissolve up and remove many of the impuri- 

VOL. II.—NO. I. R 


66 Notes and Memoranda. 


ties. The plumbago, thus obtained m a pure form, is washed and 
heated, the result of the combined mechanical and chemical action 
of these operations is, that the plumbago is so perfectly dismtegrated 
as to be formed into light floculi, which are capable of bemg blown 
away by the slightest current of air. In this condition they are 
readily condensed into solid blocks by pressure. 


PHOSPHORIZED COPPER AND Brass.—The peculiar effects of the 
presence of small portions of phosphorus on the properties of metallic 
copper have been studied carefully by Mr. Parkes, who has taken 
outa patent for the application of phosphorus to the improvement 
of the working properties of metallic copper. Phosphorized copper, 
as it is termed, possesses an extreme degree of malleability and may 
be forged readily even when heated to redness; it is so ductile that 
it is capable of being drawn out into tubes which can be flattened 
in various directions, or even tied into close knots without showimg 
any evidence of cracking; these tubes are made, in the first mstance, 
by casting them of a large size, and the diameter is then reduced by 
drawing them in the same manner as wire. The extreme ductility 
of phosphorized copper is shown by the production of a long tube 
with a bore as fine as a needle, which has been reduced down by 
drawing from a nine inch casting. Brass manufactured from phos- 
phorized copper also retains many of its valuable properties. 


InsEect-pEsTroyinc Powprr.—The exact nature of the preparation 
so well known as the Persian insecticide powder, has not been gene- 
rally known. Itis produced by the Pyrethrwm roseum caucasicum, 
a composite flower growing wild in the Caucasus. The central or 
tubular florets of the disc are alone employed, and when ground 
furnish the powder known in commerce. The plant belongs to the 
same genus as the common feverfew of our hedgerows; several 
species of Pyrethrum the natives of England and other temperate 
climates; and.it would be interesting to ascertain whether those 
florets possess the same destructive influence on insect life. Speci- 
mens of the plant and its flowers in the various stages of manufac- 
ture, are shown in the Austrian and in the Russian courts. 


NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 


Topacco SmMoxine anp AwnGiInA Prcroris.—In a communication to the 
French Academy on the 9th of June, M. Beau connects the practice of tobacco- 
smoking with that very painful and dangerous disorder, angina pectoris. In one 
case a gentleman of sixty passed the greater part of one day in smoking, and 
during a month he suffered violent palpitations at night, accompanied by oppression 
and shooting pains in the shoulders. On leaving off smoking, the symptoms dis- 
appeared. ‘lhree months afterwards he betook himself again to tobacco, and 
brought back the complaint, which finally left him when the narcotic weed was 
definitively abandoned. In the second case a physician about fifty smoked 
cigarettes all his spare time, his digestion was bad, and he suffered nightly attacks 
of angina. He gave up smoking, and the disease subsided, but sitting in a room 
filled with tobacco smoke was enough to cause a return of the pains on the fol- 
lowing night. In the third instance a physician of thirty-five smoked as he went 
his rounds in the country, and for a long time suffered loss of appetite. One 


Notes and for ivamilen 67 


morning, while smoking upon an empty stomach, he was seized with frightful 
pains in the region of the heart with constriction of the chest. He could neither 
walk nor speak, his pulse became insensible, his hands cold. The attack lasted 
half an hour. By M. Beau’s advice he left off smoking, promising to let him 
know if the disorder returned, which does not appear to have been the case. Iu 
a fourth instance a young Spaniard continually smoked cigarettes. His appetite 
vanished and his digestion became difficult. One evening, while smoking, he felt 
a sudden and violent pain in the chest, as if he had been squeezed in a vice, and 
his pulse became insensible. ‘The attack lasted ten minutes, and being frightened 
he consented to forego smoking, and sufferedno more. In a fifth case a physician 
was subject, while a smoker, to constriction of the thorax and neuralgic pains. Ina 
sixth case a merchant suffered similar attacks, but stuck to his cigar, and his disease. 
In a seventh a hearty man of seventy-five smoked desperately to get rid of his 
cares, and had three attacks of angina, the last of which killed him. An eighth 
illustration was afforded by a smoking diplomatist who died suddenly under similar 
influence. M. Beau observes that M. Bernard produced in various animals a dis- 
order resembling angina pectoris, by introducing nicotine into the thorax. He 
adds, that for tobacco-smoking to produce this disease the practice must be in 
excess, the individual endowed with a peculiar susceptibility, and likewise suffer 
from some debilitating circumstance, such as grief, fatigue, or indigestion. Then 
he considers that the system cannot expel the matter absorbed from the tobacco, 
and nicotine can accumulate sufficiently to exert a poisonous action on the heart. 


THe Ova or Enromostraca.—Dr. Baird described in former numbers of the 
Annals of Natural History some new species of entomostraca obtained from mud 
brought in a dry state from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and which he placed 
in pure water, and allowed to stand during the spring and summer. He cbtained 
six species, and the individuals of two or three species increased rapidly as the 
weather became warmer. He now adverts to the extraordinary way in which the 
ova of these creatures can resist continued drought, and mentions his success in 
rearing specimens from dry mud brought from the neighbourhood of Port Eliza- 
beth, Cape Colony: they afforded several new species. 


New Group oF Parasitic Crustacea.—Dr. Fritz Miiller describes parasites 
of crabs, to which he gives the name Rhizocephala (root-headed). He says: “The 
head of these apparent worms, which is inserted into the body of the host, emits 
roots like those of plants—hollow tubes, which, being much ramified, cling round 
its intestines, and their brood holds a middle place between that of the Lernee 
and the Cirrepedes.” The parasite of the Porcellana he calls Lern@odiscus Por- 
cellane, and that of the Hermit Crab, Sacculina purpurea. Further details will 
be found in Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1862, or Annals Nat. Hist. for June. 


Nervous Systzm or Potyzoa.—The Bulletin Universel (No. liv. p. 179) 
gives the following account, taken from the Archiv fur Naturgeschichte (1860, p. 
312), of the “Colonial Nervous System,” as Dr. Fritz Miller calls it, of the 
Polyzoa. “Among those animals which live united in an intimate family or 
colonial life, such as the bryozoa or polyzoa, we often witness movements either 
of individuals or of the entire family, and which are evidently voluntary, but 
resulting less from the volition of individuals than from an impulse of an superior 
order, appearing to emanate from the entire family. Dr. Fritz Miller, at Des- 
terro, has observed among the Pedicellina, that when individuals have been 
violently torn away, their peduncles remain adherent to the family, and continue 
their movements through whole days. In another species he noticed energetic 
movements of peduncles only bearing individuals in the condition of buds. Con- 
sidering the relatively high organization of the polyzoa, he was led to believe 
that, in addition to an individual nerveus system, they also possessed a colonial 
one belonging to the whole family, and presiding over its movements. ‘The dis- 
covery in the sea of Santa Catharina of an exceedingly transparent Serialiaria, 
has enabled him to confirm this view. These polyzoa form trichotomously rami- 
fied colonies, having the branches laden with individuals. These branches are 
permeated by a nervous trunk, which swells out at the origin of each branch into 
a basal ganglion. This nervous trunk is in intimate relation with a nervous plexus 
which sends branches to a basal ganglion of each individual, and which conse- 


68 Notes and Memoranda. 


quently establishes a communication between the colonial and the individual 
nerve systems.” 

Trst FOR OXYGENIZED WATER.—M. Schonbein finds iodized starch, to which 
has been added a little acetate of lead, and a little acetic or nitric acid, the most 
sensitive test for oxygenized water. Peroxide of lead is formed, and this substance 
evolves the blue colour in the iodized starch, especially in the presence of free 
acids. Water containing a three millionth part of oxygenized water gives a sen- 
sible blue colour with this reagent.— Archives des Sciences. 


Propvuction oF NITRATE OF AMMONIA BY AIR AND WatEeR.—M. Schonbein 
has shown that nitrate of ammonia is formed at the expense of air and water, 
during the slow combination of phosphorus ; he has likewise proved that this salt 
is present in metoric waters, and has thence concluded that its formation must be 
due to a very general cause. He now announces that this cause is found in the 
simple fact of the volatilization of water in free air, and he cites many experiments 
which confirm this belief. The process which succeeds the best is to cause water 
to fall drop by drop in a metallic vessel heated above 100° C., without, however, 
reaching the point at which the liquid passes into the spheroidal state. By hold- 
ing a cold flask above the vapours which are produced, he condenses enough water 
to recognize the presence of nitric acid and ammonia. M.Schénbein has remarked 
that the quantity of nitrate of ammonia condensed with the yapour of the water 
is very variable, sometimes almost nz/, and he is disposed, in the absence of any 
positive determination, to attribute these variations to changes of temperature. 
It is not, however, necessary that the water should boil, as the salt is produced 
during all evaporation, and its presence may be shown in the water that remains 
after a portion has been evaporated. A sheet of filtering paper dipped in pure 
water, and dried in the air, becomes impregnated with sufficient nitrate of 
ammonia to be distinguished in the water with which the paper is washed, and it 
can be discovered in linen that has been washed and hung up to dry. In all 
these cases the production of nitric acid may be rendered more evident by adding 
to the water which is evaporated a little potash, to fix the acid. Wet sand dried 
in the air becomes impregnated with nitrate of ammonia.’ The editor of the 
Archives des Sciences, from which the above account is taken, regrets that M. 
Schénbein did not ascertain whether the salt was produced by evaporation of 
water in a limited quantity of air, as, if so, the objection to the conclusiveness of 
his investigations, arising from the possible wide diffusion of the salt, and its mere 
condensation, under the circumstances he mentions, might be removed. 


SHELL OF THE CurTLE Fisu.—In our third number we called the attention of 
microscopists to the beautiful character of the shell of the cuttle fish as a polarized 
object, and we indicated the way in which its structure should be examined. We 
have since received from Mr. Baker of Holborn an exquisitely prepared slide, con- 
taining a thin section of the shell, showing the floors and the corrugated sheets of 
crystalline carbonate of lime by which they are supported, and separated, so as to 
make the shell at once firm and light. 

New Powariscopr OxssEct.—Pleasing results may be obtained with the 
Platinocyanide of ammonia, a very striking salt, exhibiting the phenomenon of 
dichroism. It is red in one view, and green in another. With the polariscope the 
beauty depends on the condition of the crystals. A few experiments will show 
what is required. 

Tue Comet oF 1861.—We learn from Cosmos that the astronomers at Pul- 
kova saw this object as late as the Ist of May, after which the nights became too 
bright to permit their following its course. Towards the end of May, the light 
in the sky was so strong at midnight that they were able to read in a room facing 
the north. 

Marxinas on Dratoms.—On this interminable controversy the President of 
the Hull Microphilosophical Society, George Norman, Hsq., remarks that, “after 
duly considering the cellular or areolar theory, that such structures, though at 
first view appearing cellular, yet after more careful study and observation, are 
evidently granular, the granules being in some species isolated and round, in others 
more closely crowded and compressed, causing an appearance of hexagonal cel- 


lulation.” 
SP SOIR LFS 


(Fo Po 


———— 


THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 


SEPTEMBER, 1862. 


BIRDS OF PARADISE. 
BY T. W. WOOD, F.Z.S. 


THose exquisitely beautiful creatures, the Birds of Paradise, 
have long attracted attention among the stuffed specimens in 
our museums, and now, through the energy and enthusiasm of 
Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, the public can make the acquaintance 
of one of the finest species in a living state. I am also person- 
ally indebted to that gentleman’s kindness in allowing me to 
make copious use of his papers on the subject. 

Describing more particularly the Great Bird of Paradise, 
Paradisea apoda, he tells us that no one can traverse the forests 
of Aru, without hearing “a loud, harsh, and oft-repeated cry, 
wawk, wawk, wok, wok, wok.” ‘This is the note of the Para- 
disea, constituting his morning and even song, and frequently 
sounded throughout the day. So far from being, as was once 
supposed, a very rare bird, Mr. Wallace assures us it is plen- 
tiful all over Aru, and is, in fact, a common species. It is, 
however, most frequently met with ma young and immature 
state, and our enterprizing traveller shot more than a dozen in 
that condition before he even saw a perfect male. It is in the 
loftier trees that the full grown males live, flying from branch 
to branch and from tree to tree in constant activity ; but keep- 
ing a wary eye on all intruders, and being so tenacious of life 
as not to fall an easy prey before the naturalist’s or the sports- 
man’s gun. Before sunrise the Great Bird of Paradise is on 
the wing, seeking his food, but, unlike many other fruit-eaters, 
he is moderate in his appetite, and preserves his activity 
through the day, instead of following their example of gorging 
until repletion produces torpor, and compels repose. Such 
being the character of this interesting denizen of the dense and 
secluded forests, we look for a corresponding development in 
physical organization, and are not surprised to learn that— 

“‘On examining a freshly killed bird, we see the great muscular 


strength of the legs and wings, and find the skin to be remarkably 
VOL. II.—NO,. II. G 


70 Birds of Paradise. 


thick and tough, and the skull, as well as the bones all very hard 
and strong. The whole neck is lined with a thick muscular fat, 
exactly similar to that of the Cephalopterus ornatus, in the same 
position, and probably serving in both cases to nourish the highly 
developed plumage of the adjacent parts. This causes the throat 
to appear externally very wide, and as if swollen, which displays to 


great advantage the dense, scaly, metallic plumage. The flesh, as’ 


might be expected, is dry, tasteless, and very tough—to be eaten 
only in necessity. By far the greater number of birds I have opened 
have had their stomachs full of fruit, and this seems to be their 
usual and favourite food. At times, however, they seek after 
insects, principally Orthoptera; and I have found one of the largest 
of the Phasmide almost entire in the stomach of a full plumaged 
bunds; 


The natives of Aru only obtain these birds during the Hast 
monsoon, and hence invented theories of their migration which 
do not correspond with the fact. It is— 


“About April, when the change from the west to the east monsoon 
occurs, the Paradiseas begin to show the ornamental side feathers, 
and in May and June they have mostly arrived at their full perfec- 
tion. This is probably the season of pairing. They are in a state of 
excitement and incessant activity, and the males assemble together 
to exercise, dress, and display their magnificent plumage. Tor this 
purpose they prefer certain lofty, large leaved forest trees (which 
at this time have no fruit), and on these, early in the morning, from 
ten to twenty full-plumaged birds assemble, as the natives express 
it, ‘to play and dance.’ They open their wings, stretch out their 
necks, shake their bodies and keep the long golden plumes opened 
and vibrating—constantly changing their positions, flymg across 
and across each other from branch to branch, and appearing proud 
of their activity and beauty. The long, downy, golden feathers 
are, however, displayed in a manner which has, I believe, been 
hitherto quite unknown, but in which alone the bird can be seen to 
full advantage, and claim our admiration as the most beautiful of 
all the beautiful winged forms which adorn the earth. Instead of 
hanging down on each side of the bird, and being almost con- 
founded with the tail (as I believe always hitherto represented, and 
as they are, in fact, carried during repose and flight), they are 
erected vertically, over the back from under and behind the wing, 
and then opened and spread out in a fan-like mass, completely 
overshadowing the whole bird. ‘The effect of this is inexpressibly 
beautiful. The long ungainly lees are no longer a deformity, as the 
bird crouches upon them, the dark brown body and wings form but 
a central support to the splendour above, from which more brilliant 
colours would distract our attention; while the pale yellow head, 
swelling throat of rich metallic green, and bright golden eye, give 
vivacity and life to the whole figure. Above, rise the intensely 
shining, orange-coloured plumes, richly marked with a stripe of 


* Annals of Natural History, 1857. 


o- ss 


Birds of Paradise. ral 


deep red, and opening out with the most perfect regularity into 
broad, waving feathers of airy down; every filament which ter- 
minates them distinct, yet waving and curving and closing upon 
each other with the vibratory motion the bird gives them; while 
the two immensely long filaments of the tail hang in graceful curves 
below.” 


After mentioning the manner in which the natives procure 
this bird by building a small inartificial looking hut in the tree 
while the birds are absent, and shooting them with arrows 
when a sufficient number have arrived, by concealing them- 
selves in the hut, Mr. Wallace continues :— 


“Of the geographical distribution of the Bird of Paradise many 
erroneous statements have been published. Its supposed migration 
have by some been extended to Banda, by others to Ceram and all 
the eastern islands of the Molucca group. These statements are, 
however, totally without foundation, the species being strictly con- 
fined to the New Guinea and the Aru Islands, and even to a limited 
portion of each of those countries. Aru consists of a very large 
central island, and some hundreds of smaller ones scattered around 
it at various distances, many being of large size and covered with 
dense and lofty forests; yet on not one of these is the Paradisea 
ever found (although many of them are much nearer New Guinea), 
being limited to the large island, and even to the central portions 
of that island, never appearing on the sea coast, nor in the swampy 
forests which in many places reach some miles inward. With 
regard to its distribution in New Guinea, the Macassar traders 
assured me it was not found there at all; for, although they ob- 
tain quantities of ‘Burong mati (the Malay name), from most of 
the places they visit on the west coast of New Guinea, they are all 
of another kind, being the Paradisea papuana, a smaller and more 
delicate, but less briliantly coloured species. On inquiry I found 
that they did not trade eastward of Cape Buro (135° H). Lesson, 
I believe, found the larger species in the southern peninsula of New 
Guinea, and an intelligent Ceramese trader. I met at Aru assured 
me that, in places he had visited more eastward than the range of 
the Macassar traders, the same kind was found as at Aru. It is 
therefore clear that the Paradisea apoda is confined to the southern 
peninsula of New Guinea and the Aru islands, while the Paradisea 
papuana inhabits only the northern peninsula, with one or two of 
the islands (most probably) near its northern extremity.” 


The birds now living in perfect health at the Zoological 
Society’s Gardens are two males of Paradisea papuana. Their 
habits in the aviary remind one very strongly of a jay or 
jackdaw, being very restless and prying in their disposition, 
often clinging to the perpendicular parts of their cage wherever 
there is a hold for their feet, and even hanging suspended 
under a branch like a titmouse. When on the ground, their 
mode of progression is by hopping ; and their call consists of a 


72 Birds of Paradise. 


series of very loud but pleasingly varied notes. Not only are 
these notes varied in themselves, but they are also differently 
arranged at different times; the birds, however, possess two or 
three distinct series, which are more frequently repeated than 
the others. Mr. Wallace says that their note differs much from 
that of the wild birds, the latter terminating their series with a 
single low note, whereas the former often finish with a kind of 
gobble repeated twice. One of their notes uttered occasionally 
is exceedingly like the caw of a rook orjackdaw, but less harsh ; 
another resembles the word ‘‘Jacob.” ‘These birds display 
their long plumes generally in the forenoon after a bath, and 
when their toilet is thoroughly completed; the body then 
assumes a position almost erect, the feet clinging to the perch 
very tightly, otherwise the bird would fall backwards; the 
wings are raised, fully extended and widely separated from the 
body; the bird is seen to shake the whole body, at the same 
time expanding the lovely ornamental feathers, the uppermost 
and shortest of which are elevated the most, their ends hanging 
over in a most graceful manner. At each side of the plume the 
brilhant, shining orange colour is seen extending to more than 
half its length, and gradually fading all round into the pure 
white in a most exquisite manner, a strip of the richest red- 
brown, almost black in its depth of colour, running through the 
orange colour to about one quarter the length of the plume— 
the wings have a slight flappmg movement during this display, 
and the tail with its two long bare shafts are thrust forwards 
under the perch. 

While the birds are thus showing themselves to the greatest 
advantage they suddenly commence jumping and turning them- 
selves about on the perch in a very excited manner, uttering at 
the same moment a series of screams, louder and more piercing 
than any of their ordinary notes. The two birds are almost 
sure to “show off” both at the same time, and @ careful 
observer may notice that the pupil of the eye is continually con- 
tracting and dilating. The bill is of a light greyish-blue colour, 
and has an opaque appearance ; the iris is pale greenish-yellow ; 
feet lead colour; of course none of these colours are seen in 
the preserved skin, but the colours of the feathers may be 
retained in all their intensity by excluding the hight as much ag 
possible. 

As is well known, there are several other species belonging 
to this group of birds, almost each one possessing something 
quite unique in the manner of its ornamentation ; the Semeiop- 
tera Wallacii, for mstance (named after our intrepid traveller 
and discovered by him), possesses two long thin whitish feathers 
crowing from amongst the lesser wing coverts; this gem was 
found in the Island of Batchian, one of the Moluccas, and the 


—— ne _~ 


A Dredging Excursion. 73 


natives spoke of another and finer black species with longer 
plumes, but Mr. Wallace, after many inquiries and much fruit- 
less exertion, was obliged to leave without ever seeing a 
specimen. 

The following is extracted from a paper recently read by 
Mr. Wallace at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London : 


“Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her 
choicest treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained. 
First we find an open, harbourless, inhospitable coast, exposed to 
the full swell of the Pacific Ocean; next a rugged and mountainous 
country, covered with dense forests, offering, in its swamps, pre- 
cipices, and serrated ridges, an almost impassable barrier to the 
central regions; and, lastly, a race of the most savage and ruthless 
character in the very lowest stage of civilization. In such a country 
and among such a people are found these wonderful productions of 
nature. In those trackless wilds do they display that exquisite 
beauty and that marvellous development of plumage, calculated to 
excite admiration and astonishment among the most civilized and 
most intellectual races of man. A feather is itself a wonderful 
and beautiful thing. A bird clothed with feathers is almost neces- 
sarily a beautiful creature. How much then must we wonder at. 
and admire the modification of simple feathers into the rigid, 
polished, wavy ribbands which adorn P. Rubra, the mass of airy 
plumes in P. apoda, the tufts and wires of Seleucides alba, or 
the golden buds borne upon airy stems that spring from the tail 
of Cicinnurus regia, while gems and polished metals can alone 
compare with the tints that adorn the breast of P. sexsetacea and 
Astrapia nigra and the immensely developed shoulder plumes of 
Epimachus magnus.” 


A DREDGING EXCURSION. 
_BY D. WALKER, M.D., F.L.S., CORR. MEM. Z.8., ETC. 


Lirvinc on a sandy seaboard where there are few rocks and 
ttle shingle, I have often been disappointed in my search 
along the shore for specimens of marine natural history. Many 
fruitless hours have been spent with such meagre results, that I 
have frequently returned home murmuring at the circumstances 
which placed me in a locality so destitute of a luxurious marine 
fauna. My opportunities for dredging are few and scattered ; 
all however are eagerly taken advantage of, and with a hope that 
some readers similarly situated may follow my example, and 
recelve some pleasure from the perusal of a few reminiscences 
of my last dredging excursion, I jot them down, adding, as 
they occur to me, such practical hints and details—needful, but 
not dry—as may enable others most advantageously to pursue 
this healthful and fascinating study. 


74 A Dredging Excursion. 


With most shore-dredgers and amateurs, the greatest depth 
at which they can dredge with ease will be about ten or fifteen 
fathoms, so that any observations that I may make must be 
understood as referrmg to such an expedition. One preliminary 
remark as to companions: as a rule, not more than two or three 
should form the party, exclusive of the boatmen ; and it would 
be as well, perhaps, if you go on a rough day, that none were 
subject to sea-sickness, which would certainly mar your pleasure, 
if it did not take away your profit. A fine day should, if pos- 
sible, be chosen, with a clear sky anda good breeze. Then 
time your starting so as to go three hours before low water, 
and return with the flood, eight or nine hours being suffi- 
cient for the most ardent zoologist on this coast. Our des- 
tination is the north-west lightship, off the mouth of the 
estuary of the Dee; so having secured a good boat, efficient 
boatmen, and everything necessary for our purpose, we will 
start if you please from New Brighton pier, and get as soon as 
possible into the Channel, hauling our wind as needful, and 
keeping near the buoys unless we wish to run ignominiously 
aground on a sandbank. With a good wind we shall generally 
reach the dredging ground at low water, passing on our way 
flocks of ducks and plenty of gulls, at which the sportsman 
may try his hand if he please. . 

If the wind be not too high, or the swell too great, we may 
have put out a towing-net—a bag made of bunting or canvas, 
eight to ten inches wide, and twelve to fourteen inches deep, 
attached to an iron ring, and towed astern by means of a line 
fastened to a triplet cord. This net skims the surface of the 
sea, frequently catching beautiful specimens of Acalephs. They 
will seem to the uninitiated hardly worthy of notice, appearing 
as they do like lumps of almost transparent jelly lying in the 
corners of the net; but in their own element they will amply 
repay observation and attention. If these be placed at once 
in a glass jar of water, by inserting the bag into the jar the 
movements of the ciliw will be beautifully seen. They are 
not likely to imjure the hands of those who touch them, 


_ having this advantage over their foreign relatives, which have 


more than once given mea rather severe attack of whitlow. 
As you closely look at these gelatinous creatures you will notice 
that they may be divided into two sets; one set, Cydippe, have 
long thread-like appendages, which are absent in the others. 
These (Berée) are oval and hollow, furnished with eight longi- 
tudinal radii, which pass from the small end to near the margin 
of the large extremity. These lines have each a single series of 
short cilize or hair-like appendages, which move with great 
celerity and gracefulness in a wave passing from the top to the 
margin. ‘The iridescence and play of colours displayed when these 


” 


A Dredging Hxeursion. 75 


beautiful creatures move through the water is beyond the ima- 
gination of those who have never witnessed it. In the Polar 
Seas I have seen the surface of the ocean covered with quanti- 
ties of the Berée ovata, and other Acalephs, which form a prin- 
cipal part of the food of the whale. The specimens of Cydippe 
pileus which we have obtained are not so large as the Berge. 
They are somewhat globular, and have, besides the long thread- 
like organs, a double series of cilize attached to each of the eight 
longitudinal radii. The long threads you will find are moveable 
according to the will of the animal, and are retractile, and are 
also furnished with ciliz. The average size of the Cydippe is 
about five lines and a half by four lines. 

We are now on the scene of our operations, and the helm 
is put up, bringing the boat to the wind. As she drifts, the 
dredge is brought to the stern and let go to windward. .T'wice 
the quantity of line required by the depth of water is payed out, 
made fast to a belaying-pin, and the remainder coiled up in the 
bottom of the boat, the end being fastened to the mast for 
safety. While we discuss the provisions which provident 
dredgers supply, and which you will by this time feel the need 
of, three hours being supposed to have elapsed since leaving 
the shore—I will give you an idea of what operations are going 
on at the bottom of the sea. And first to describe the dredge 
in its simplest form, as others, however needful on stony boul- 
dery shores, would be quite out of place here. Our dredge, 
then, consists of a framework of iron and a net or bag. The 
frame is made with moveable joimts, to fold and carry in the 
hand, and is from eighteen to twenty inches long, and from seven 
to ten wide. The edges of the two long pieces are made broad. 
for scraping ; the cross pieces are merely for the handles of the 
dredge, and have two swivel joints, so that a sideway motion 
as well as the ordinary forward and backward one, is obtained, 
which is useful in case of the dredge fouling stones, etc. The 
two handles end in two rings, through which the dredging- 
rope is passed and made fast. Care should be taken that the 
knots are not made in what sailors call “a lubberly manner,” 
or it is very likely that they may slip, and the dredge be left at 
the bottom of the sea, to be triumphed over by the inhabitants 
as one of “ our failures.” The bag of our dredge is made of toler- 
ably thick line, woven into a net, the meshes not very large, and 
it is fastened to holes in the scraping side of the framework. The 
dredging-rope should be sufficiently strong to anchor the boat 
im smooth water; though, of course, if there be much way on 
her, that could not be expected. This strength is requisite in 
case of the dredge fouling, when it is needful to let out some 
of the spare line and relieve the strain while the boat is being 
brought round. The dredge then capsizes, and can be hauled up. 


76 A Dredging Excursion. 


A good deal of judgment is required for the regulation of the 
line: if too long, the dredge will be in danger of getting fast ; 
if too short, it will only skim the bottom. If the bottom 
be sandy or muddy, the boat must have pretty good way on 
her or the dredge will bury itself. If rocky, or composed of 


boulders, shorten the line, or the strain will break it: but expe-— 


rience is the only teacher; and the feel of the line soon tells 
whether the dredge be properly bumping or scraping the 
bottom. Before lowering the dredge a weight is to be fastened 
on the line, a fathom or two from the handles, in order to keep 
the strain as near as possible on the plane of the bottom. 
Sweeping thus along, whatever comes in the way of the 
dredge is draughted into it, the water escaping through the 
meshes, and leaving the live desiderata and dead shells in the 
inside. It is often advisable, especially in dredging over hard 
and pebbly ground, to have a lining-net inside the dredge- 
net. This should be made of bunting, and will often secure 
rare shells, such as Mangelia, Scalaria, etc., which would other- 
wise have escaped with the rush of water. When a sufficient 
distance has been traversed, or the straining of the rope seems 
to render it desirable, the boat is brought to, the dredge and 
its contents hauled on board and capsized into a sieve of quarter 


of an inch mesh, or, as we are amateurs, a basket, which will © 


answer our purpose just as well. 
And now begins our real work.: ‘‘What,” cries Mr. Deli- 
cate Faintheart, “‘do you call it delightful and fascinating to 


poke about in that dirty black mass of mud and stones? If that 


be the only way to secure specimens for aquarium or microscope, 
I beg to decline having anything to do with either,” and our 
fastidious friend returns to his sandwiches: we laugh at him, 
and set to work all the more vigorously. In the basket we find 
a portentous mass of dirt, stones, crabs, sea-urchins, oyster 
shells, etc.; at once we pounce on them, and our one compa- 
nion becomes quite excited as he fumbles among the mud, having 
come across a crab, and finding, when he has worked the mud 
off his shell covering, that he has discovered the rarer species of 
Hyas. Hyas coarctatus, or the contracted spider crab, his cara- 
pace, or shell, is in form somewhat between a fiddle and a lyre; 
the first pair of legs half as long again as the body. He is the 
largest yet met with there, his carapace measuring 1-7 inches by 
1:1 inches. Put him into water and you will see that those dirty- 
looking thing's upon the back are beautiful zoophytes. I have met 
with this species in Greenland. Crawling over the surface of the 
stones and mud, I see a long-legged spider crab, with a very 
small back; no other Stenorynchus having been found here, you 
may be pretty sure he is S. phalangium; the second pair of 
legs in this crab are almost four times the length of the body, 


ee) 


A Dredging Hzxcursion. 77 


all the leos and the back are covered with hairs, and frequently 
pieces of seaweed and small sponges; it moves very sluggishly, 
and dies in a very short time if kept out of water. Presently 
my friend catches hold of a ray protruding from the mud, and 
dexterously disentangling it, it proves to be Ophiocoma rosula, 
the common brittle star; the five comparted disk is covered 
with spines, and in this case is white, spotted with red, the rays 
are banded with amber, while one is of a dark blue with roseate 
spines. ‘Take care how you touch him, for if you handle him 
mach he will, in the most spiteful manner, break off his rays 
and throw them at you in disgust. ‘These are very common, 
their arms appearing at almost every one of the meshes of the 
dredge. Now, however, the motion of the boat begins to tell 
us that we have got into a chopping sea, and, turning towards 
my dainty friend of the sandwiches, we see that he has resigned 
himself to his fate. Considerably sobered by this affecting 
sight, my remaining companion resumes his search in the basket, 
but finding that a stooping posture is not agreeable in the sea- 
way, he most reluctantly joins his companion in tribulation. 
Not being particularly susceptible to these weaknesses, I 
call the boatman to my aid, and pick away alone in my glory. 
On yielding to the enemy, my friend has dropped his last prize, 
a beautiful Pecten opercularis, well worth preserving ; for beside 
the pleasure of seeing the valves open and display the gem-like 
eyes which fringe the mantle, the surface of the shell is covered 
with corallines of exquisite delicacy—Plumularia, Sertularia, 
and other equally interesting organisms. Another dead valve 
has a little group of the angular stems of the Laomedea genicu- 
lata, with their red, jelly-like extremities, which, when placed 
in water, expand and show themselves to be campanulate alter- 
nate glassy celled polypes, with many tentacles attached to 
each. Ha! there is a crab trying to walk up the side of the 
basket and get away, take care of him, he is new to this district 
—that is a Portunus marmoreus, or marbled swimming crab. 
See his hind legs, how they terminate in broad, swimming plates, 
finely cihated, enabling this cleanser to scuttle about in a very 
active manner; his back is marbled with the most beautiful 
varied patterns, the arched lines on the carapace are covered 
with deep blue points, while each region into which it is divided 
has apparently its own shade of brown, buff, and red. Ifthe 
foreclaws be examined with a lens, the exquisite sculpture will 
be seen, the four keels notched and toothed with fine indenta- 
tions, and the one sharp tooth at the inner angle of the wrist; 
his brethren, P. puber and P. depwrator, are now scarcely so com- 
mon on this coast, having been partially replaced by a colony of 
Portwmus marmoreus. Here is another crab, with brownish- 


green legs, dull red abdomen, and dark green back; a sulky- 


78 A Dredging Hxcursion. 


looking fellow, who tries to escape by awkwardly shambling, as 
if he wanted to skulk away and watch you at the same time ; that 
first pair of legs is armed with remarkably strong thumbs and 
fingers, as you will find to your cost if you come within range 
of their operations, that-is Carcinus menas. 

Now my friend has recovered from his sickness, and by no 
means disheartened, returns to the grubbing, evoking from the 
mud a beautiful urchin, all covered with spines; it proves to be 
the Hehinus Fleming, a rare species, and not the common sea~ 
urchin, as at first we supposed. Another dive into the basket 
brings out a single ray, whatisit? Part of a sand star; and 
on looking closely we find a disk with four rays, to which the 
former one evidently once belonged, but he has parted with it 
under the pressure of circumstances, as he was jammed in be- 
tween two stones, from which perilous position you have just 
rescued him and prevented further mutilation. Hxamine him 
with your pocket lens, and you-will see thirty or forty imbri- 
cated plates covering the rays; examine also the small spines 
on their sides, and count the teeth in the frill, at the base of 
each ray, where it comes off from the disk. Another star also 
emerges from the basket, a much smaller species ; these two 
are Ophiolepis teaturata and O. albida. But the boatman has 
also been at work putting everything alive into the glass jar 
beside him, and all at once we hear a knock, knock, tap, tap, 
against the side of the jar. Looking in we see a large Buccmum 
moving most mysteriously over everything, so we turn the shell 
round and find that it is tenanted by a Hermit crab. Pagurus 
Bernhardus has made it her home, and is now inspecting the 
new locality in which she finds herself, her long claws go clack- 
ing against and over all impediments, the shell bobbing along 
after. Look how she works those organs attached to her head, 
feeling here, and listening there, as she stands still and gazes 
out with those large goggle eyes. Give this crab a piece of 
mussel and watch those internal and smaller antennze how they 
move whilst feeding ; the jaw-feet, or pedipalps, shovelling the 
food up, creating a constant current towards the mouth, and 
making the water turbid with the sand attached to the mussel 
shell. Having disposed of that dainty, a change of residence 
is deemed advisable. See how cautiously she feels over that 
empty shell with her long claws, the eyes staring intensely the 
whole time, till satisfied with the proposed new tenement, the 
body is carefully drawn out of the old shell, and with great 
dexterity whisked into the new one, as if she were afraid that 
some one would attack her from behind at this advantageous 
moment. Another plunge brings up a twelve-rayed sun star, 
» with his rich scarlet disk, the rays white and tipped with red 
near the extremity ; put a small specimen into, and watch how 


ae SS 


i 


SS ee SSE, NE 


A Dredging Hacursion. vhs 


soon it fastens itself to, the jar, and begins to crawl with the 
thousand suckers it protrudes from rays and disk—this is So- 
laster papposa. 

Here is a Trochus, or “top,” with his roughly granulated 
whorls beautifully marked and sculptured, its pointed spire and 
finely turned lip. ‘There are one or two rarer Mangelia and a 
Triton crawling along the bottom of the basket. But see, the 


boatman is just throwing a handful of mussels overboard, and 


when we stop him, he abandons his occupation in contempt at 
the idea of our being such fools as to come this distance to pick 
mussels. Well, “all is not gold that glitters,’ and vice versa. 
Turning to the despised mussels, we find something sticking to 
the shells, and, as we touch it with the nail, we perceive that 
we have some nice specimens of Flustra with parasitic Cellu- 
laria, and other interesting varieties of the Polyzoa. Now look 
attentively at that stone, see those two slugs—one dirty grey 
and one with red tipped tentacles ; these are both specimens of 


' Nudibranchs. Put them into the jar, you will see the former 


expand its beautiful barred or ringed gills, and close to the 
eye you will see two beautiful toothed horns, that is a Doris; 
the other is much rarer Holis rufabranchialis ; we shall soon 
most likely encounter a white Holis. Here is another bunch 
of mussels, each fastened by his thread-like byssus to a small 
stone, and all tied together, sociably enjoying, each others’ so- 
ciety. Crack one with a hammer, and lo! a very tiny Pea 
crab (rejoicing, like other little people, in a long and important 
name, Pinnotheres piswm) looks out of his shell; he is beauti- 
fully blotched with brown patches on a yellow or orange ground. 
The old superstition was, that Nature had not given the mussel 
eyes, so he made a compact with our little friend similar to that 
which the blind man is said to have made with the lame, accord- 
ing to our schoolboy tradition. 

While we have been sorting this basket, the boatmen have 
had their shank-trawl overboard, which is a net twelve feet by 
ten, fastened to two “ trawl heads” as they are called, which I 
may explain, for the information of the uninitiated, to be semi- 
circular flat bands of iron attached to the extremities of a wooden 
beam, which extends for the whole length of the net, the lower 
mouth of which is weighted by a chain wolded round with old 
rope. As the net sweeps along the bottom, the upper mouth 
kept open by the trawl heads and beam, the fish, rudely roused 
from their repose by the chain, rush into it as their nearest 
place of safety, and suffer the consequences of their rashness. 
All hands are called to haul the net on deck; quantities of 
plaice, Platessa vulgaris, and soles, Solea vulgaris, are flounder- 
ing about, but look! what a beautiful fish we have here, the 
Gemmeous Dragonet, Callionymus lyra; admire its different 


80 A Dredging Hxcursion. 


shades of yellow, and the sapphirine stripes which cover its 
body and head ; look at the black tail-fin, and the finely arched 
first ray of the fin on its back. Here is the spotted Goby, 
Gobius minutus, if you turn him over you will see under his 
throat the disk by which he can attach himself to rocks and 
stones; put him anywhere, he will live a long time out of 
water. Here is the “ stingfish,”’—get him over the side as soon 
possible, touch him not, or you will find some of the poison 
oozing out from each of his hairy hollow spines transferred 
into your blood. ‘There is a fine specimen of the male “‘ masked. 
crab,” Corystes Cassivellaunus; look at those long graceful 
arms, and observe the mask on his carapace when you have 
washed him; watch how he twirls and brushes those elegant 
antennze, just as a modern dandy does his moustache. 

There, hopping about in a very lively style, are some long, 
transparent, shrimp-like animals, their bodies — beautifully 
banded with dotted rings of golden amber, and each leg at the 
joits similarly ornamented ; how their antenne move about 
as they are put into the water; those triplet antennee with 
brown bases, the ends like a whip, these are Squille. Close to 
them are numbers of Crangons, “ common shrimp,” and 
Pandalus, or ‘ Hsop prawns ;” how unlike those yellow and red 
animals which are such, agreeable adjuncts to our tea-table ; 
admire the notched keel of those ‘ Esops,” and their up- 
turned points; you had better put them by themselves, else 
they will be eaten up by so many crabs. Here, hidden under 
a stone, is a specimen of the “ spotted gunnell,” with a long, 
ribbon-like body, which writhes away under the stones, it is 
spotted along its upper side with brown dots, the dorsal fin 
extending almost the whole length of the body, the anal for 
two-thirds. That broad, ungainly-looking crab, stalking about 
on those shells, is the “ angular crab,” Gonoplax angulatas ; his 
eyes are set, as you see, on remarkably long stalks, and mark 
the groove along which they le when notin use; what an awk- 
ward companion he must be with those enormously long arms! 
Here are quantities of the common “ cross fish,” Uraster rubens ; 
turn them over before you throw them away, you may find some 
interesting bivalves sticking in their suckers. See there is one 
with a fine glassy, almost transparent shell, Syndosmya alba ; 
it is worth looking at at home: there is also a specimen of that 
apparently shelless mollusc, Philline aperta, a fine specimen 
for dissection. But here is something we have not seen before : 
into the jar with him at once, and watch him; the head seems 
as large as the body, with large staring eyes at the side, the 
neck considerably contracted, the body with two wing-like 
appendages which wave through the water, enabling the little 
creature to swim ; out of its head grow ten arms, eight of which 


————— 
; 


A Dredging Hucursion. 81 


have small cups or suckers on the inner side, and two larger 
ones which only have cups at their extremities, how delicately 
the whole body is painted over with spots ; touch him, and at 
once the clear water becomes black with the cuttle-fish ink, for 
that is the Sepiola atlantica. 

Pick up that mouse-like animal—its back is covered with a 
kind of down, out of which sprout spines of different length, 
coloured with all the hues of the rainbow, the score or so of 
bristles exhibiting every imaginable brilliant metallic tint. 
When you go home put one of those hairs under a microscope, 
and see how nature has provided a hard sheath into which 
these weapons are retracted, so that the soft parts of the animal 
can receive no injury; pluck some of the down off the back, 
and you will expose a double set of large scales attached to the 


- alternate segments of the animal; that is the hairy sea-mouse, 


Aphrodite hispida. Here is another Annelid, a Nereis, which 
boasts of a distinct head, eyes, and mouth, and wriggles about 
by means of the tentacles issuing from its many feet. Look at 
this dirty, leathery tube fastening to a large stone, place it in 
the water, and in about five or ten minutes, if you look again, 
you will see such a rainbow frill, such a circle of plumes 
surrounding the opening! that is a Sabella, and those are its 
branchize or breathing organs ; that central elongated disk acts 
as an operculum, and although funnel-shaped is not pervious, 
but is one of the tentacles purposely enlarged to plug up the 
aperture of the tube when the animal retreats within. To the 
same stone adheres very tenaciously a small shell, which on a 
close examination you will find to consist of eight plates, over- 
lapping each other at their edge and joined together by a 
leathery mantle; getit off the stone with your nail, and, holding 
it in your hand for a minute, you will see the plates separate, 
and the extremities come close together, till what was a flat 
surface has become almost a ball; in the jar, however, it soon 
fastens itself to the side, where you may see the muscular foot, 
the expansion and contraction of which form the locomotive 
power of the animal, that is a Chiton, Ch. cinereus, admirable 
for the beautiful moulding on his back. Here is a white Holis, 
with gills arranged on each side, the tentacles not retractile. 
There is a good sized globular shell with four or five whorls, 
nicely dotted with brown streaks on a greyish-yellow ground ; 
drop him into the jar that you may view the large foot with a 
large, broad lobe in front, so broad, indeed, as to conceal the 
head, close to the lobe you will perceive the tentacles sprouting 
out, this is a carnivorous mollusc, Natica monilifera. In the 
bottom of the basket you may find what is called ‘‘ an elephant’s 
tooth,” Dentaliwm entalis ; notice the shell, it is tubular, 
slightly curved and tapering from end to end, with an opening 


82 The Sunfish as a Host. 


at each extremity, one very small; the other, through which it 
is intended the animal’s body should protrude, is propor- 
tionately larger; the head in the middle of the body is surrounded 
by gills; this mollusc is a sand-borer, and feeds on minute 
marine animals. Almost hidden from our view is a small 
crustacean belonging to the sessile-eyed division of the family ; 
watch how it scuttles along on its side when it reaches its native 
element, using its swimming feet so constantly and so rapidly, 
as to suggest the idea of their bemg worked by a small private 
steam-engine ; if you examine the antennz of this creature, you 
will see two small secondary feelers sprouting from the upper 
pair, the lower pair having no such appendages ; glance at that 
broad hand, with its finger so admirably adapted for nipping, 
and viewthestructureof the swimming plates andtailsodelicately 
fringed with ciliz, that is a Gammarus, G. sabini. Near him 
lies Galathea squamifera, a stalk-eyed crustacean, with pointed 
notched rostrum, and long fore feet, its abdomen and swimming 
tail, neatly tucked away out of sight, completely concealing 
from our view the spawn which would soon form Zoew, and 
ultimately crabs. 

And now, our jars being tolerably well filled, we turn home- 
wards, rather tired, we must confess, but anticipating with no 
little eagerness the work that remains for us on our arrival 
there. Many a day may be pleasantly and usefully employed 
in examining, classifying, and identifying our specimens, and 
dissecting those whose organizations we desire to study more 
carefully. 


THE SUNFISH AS A HOST. 


BY T. SPENCER COBBOLD, M.D., F.L.S. 
Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, and Botany, at the Middlesex 
Hospital Medical College. 
Soms credit is due to those of our continental brethren who. 
have devised a set of simple terms calculated to express the 
relations subsisting between different forms of animal life, both 
as regards the species themselves and the various phases of 
being known to occur in one and the same individual. The 
Danish naturalist Steenstrup first suggested the convenient 
titles of “‘nurse,” “ grandnurse,” and so forth, in reference to 
“parents” producing non-sexual broods of larval flukes by the 
now well understood process of internal budding ; and, in like 
manner, Von Siebold, and other German parasitologists, 
fittingly applied the term “host” to any animal actually 
infested with, or liable to be attacked by parasites, because it 
thus, as it were, entertains within its own body the presence of 


The Sunfish as @ Host.  . 83 


these singular creatures. In their view, the question as to 
whether the company of entozoa be acceptable or not to the 
“host ” in no way prevents the invaders being recognized as 
guests, whilst in most cases they are sumptuously entertained, 
although they be not welcome. ‘The organization of the 
entozoa admirably adapts them for a temporary residence 
within the body of the selected “ host ;” so much so, indeed, 
that from their peculiar organization, one might fairly argue 
their legitimate title to such an abode; yet, at the same time, 
it must be admitted that the means of entry at their command, 
as well as the instincts they exhibit in their mode of gaming 
access, do but epitomize the imstincts of the genuine burglar. 
In few cases, if in any, can 1b be shown that the presence of 
animal parasites confers positive good to the “host;” but in 
numerous instances it is certain that they cause incalculable 
mischief. ‘This was sufficiently shown in our paper on Fasciola 
hepatica, in the first volume of the InTELLEcTUAL OBsERVER, and 
the subject has simce been further elucidated by Professor 
James Beart Simonds, in his instructive memoir on the Nature, 
Cause, Treatment, and Prevention of the Rot m Sheep. 

Tf the mere variety of parasites formed an accurate criterion 
of the hospitality, so to speak, of any given “ host,” the species 
here selected for the purpose of illustration might certainly be 
regarded as a very liberal individual; but it often happens that 
an animal liable to harbour only one or two forms of entozoa is 
more copiously infested by those few particular kinds than 
another animal which is liable to be infested by a much greater 
variety of parasitic guests. ‘The short sunfish (Orthagoriscus 
mola of Schneider, and Tetradon mola of Linnzeus) is believed 
to be infested by nine species of helminths, three of which are 
usually attached to the gills, while a fourth adheres to the sur- 
face of the body. All of the latter, though ecto-parasitic in 
their habits, are true flukes belonging to the genera Distoma 
and Tristoma, and cannot therefore be removed from the 
entozoa properly so called. In the present communication we 
propose to treat only of one of the above-mentioned “ guests,” 
selecting for this purpose a species which belongs to the great 
tapeworm family. We are aware that to some persons the 
study of this group of animals appears to be peculiarly unin- 
viting ; but in our own experience, based upon a prolonged 
contemplation of their structure, habits, and development, we 
can testify to the rare instruction and pleasure which such a 
research is calculated to afford. 

Notwithstanding the hght which experimental investigation 
has lately thrown upon the subject, the tapeworms are still re- 
garded by many as individual animals, possessed of long jointed 
bodies, whereas the organism usually called a tapeworm—like 


84 The Sunfish as a Host. 


that, for example, shown at fig. 3 in the accompanying tinted 
plate—is not one individual animal, but in reality a series of in- 
dividuals associated together so as to form a long band resem- 
bling an ordinary measuring tape, the likeness to the latter 
gaining strength by the circumstance of the band being jointed, 
or transversely marked at tolerably regular intervals. Hvery 
tapeworm is, in point of fact, a colony of creatures arranged in 
single file, and in the more technical nomenclature of helmin- 
thology is termed the “ strobila.”” As we have recently taken 
occasion to remark elsewhere, the tapeworm, or “ strobila,” is 
usually composed of several hundred joints, each segment re- 
presenting a single member of the colony, and to this latter we 
apply. the term “ proglottis.” Those individual ‘ proglottides” 
which are nearest to the lower end, or so called tail of the 
ordinary tapeworm, are sexually mature; moreover, they are 
hermaphroditic, that is, they are provided with both male and 
female reproductive organs. Those feebly developed joints, 
which form the so-called neck of the worm, are imperfect. or 
immature individuals, whilst the little head is neither more nor 
less than a single joint or proglottis, curiously modified and 
furnished with an apparatus by which the strobila or colony is 
securely anchored to the interior of the infested “ host.” 

It is necessary that the above-mentioned facts be borne in 
mind, otherwise the true relation of the parts of the strobila or 
tapeworm to be presently described will be entirely lost sight 
of ; and it becomes the more necessary to insist on these dis- 
tinctions in cases where, as in the present, the application of 
our zoological nomenclature seems to lend countenance to the 
popular and erroneous notion that the strobila is, after all, only 
one zoological individual. So far as tapeworms are concerned 
our specific distinctions for the most part depend upon the cha- 
racters presented by the so-called head of the worm; but this 
head is, as we have seen, the primary individual of the colony. 
It might be supposed that although the head of one kind of 
tapeworm-colony differed from that of another kind, yet the 
jomts or members of the colony might display similar cha- 
racters in different strobila, and so be after all the same 
creatures, although their so-called heads were different. Such 
a notion, however—which at one time was practically supported 
by Von Siebold himself when he denied the hitherto recog- 
nized specific distinctions of five well marked tapeworms 
(Band und Blasenwiirmer, p. 98 et seq.)—is contra-indicated 
by numerous facts; for even the jomts themselves exhibit co- 
ordinating structures, which are found to be imvariable in the 
different tapeworm colonies. 

The more complex the characters of any particular class of 
animals, the greater the confusion introduced into the writings 


Token 
etrarhynchus re 


The Sunfish as a Host. | 85. 


of those who in earlier times directed their attention to the 
eroup. A glance at the literature of tapeworms renders this 
truth especially significant. Some investigators, indeed, spare 
themselves a vast deal of trouble by altogether ignoring the 
labours of previous writers; but deprecating this mode of 
procedure, we have always considered it due to antecedent 
observers to express some recognition of their researches, even 
in those instances where recent discovery has demonstrated 
the fallacy of their facts and theories. In this view, therefore, 
we offer a synonomy of the tapeworm, or strobila under consi- 
deration, which we take to be as follows :— 

Gymnorhynchus reptans, Rudolphi, Bremser, Blainville, Nord- 
mann, Dujardin. 

Gymnorhynchus horridus, John Goodsir. 

Acanthorhynchus reptans, Diesing. 

Bothryorhynchus continuus, Van Lidth de Jeude. 

Bothryocephalus patulus, Leuckart. 

Anthocephalus elongatus, Rudolphi, Nitzsch, Nordmann, 
Drummond, Dwardin. 

Anthocephalus macrourus, Bremser. 

Floriceps saccatus, Cuvier. 

Floriceps elongatus, Blainville. 

Scolex gigas, Cuvier. 

Here it will be seen that we have the same tapeworm de- 
scribed by twelve authors under ten different titles, whilst not 
less than seven of these authorities have considered the animal 
as referable to two separate species ; moreover, as if to render 
“* confusion worse confounded,” several of them have adorned 
their descriptions with extremely inaccurate figures. Sys- 
tematists and others who have not been fortunate enough to 
examine the species for themselves have naturally placed great 
store by the various representations given by Cuvier, Rudolphi, 
Bremser, Leuckart, and others; and thus the figure of one 
author is taken to represent a different species from that given 
by another, and a new name has been applied accordingly. 
Had the distinguished Professor J. P. Van Beneden, of the 
Catholic University of Louvain, chanced to have stumbled on 
this species, his skilful pencil would not have failed to have 
added another exact picture to the beautiful series of figures 
which illustrate his Recherches sur la faune littorale de Bel- 
gique, and he would thus have dissipated many doubts as to 
the identity of the species. For our own part, we have not 
hesitated to expose the accumulated errors which have crept 
into helminthological literature ; and while offering an accu- 
rate illustration drawn to nature, we at the same time take 
leave to observe that this tapeworm should both in the first 
and last instances have been described under the appropriate 

VOL. II.—NO. JI. H 


86 The Sunfish as a Host. 


genus Tetrarhynchus, established by Rudolphi at a very early 
date. At the risk, therefore, of appearing inconsistent, we 
believe it to be in the interest of science to place the worm 
under this genus, whilst we retain the specific title “ reptans’” 
as fitly expressing its groping habits. 

If attention be now directed to the accompanying plate, a 
correct understanding of the organization of this remarkable 
Cestode will be greatly facilitated. Fig. 1 represents a very 
juvenile example of Orthagoriscus, which was taken by fisher- 
men off Anstruther, on the Fifeshire coast, on the 6th of 
September, 1856. Several full-grown individuals had been 
captured in the same neighbourhood some weeks previous, one 
very large example being subsequently anatomized by the pro- 
fessor of anatomy at the Edinburgh University. The small fish 
here drawn gave the following dimensions: length from snout 
to tail, eighteen inches; between tips of dorsal and anal fins, 
twenty-six inches ; greatest depth of the body, twelve inches ; 
length of pectoral fins, two inches and a half; width of gill 
aperture, one inch; consequently it will be perceived that our 
illustration represents the animal reduced to about one-sixth 
the natural size. Having placed our fish on its left side, 
a considerable portion of the intezument was removed so as to 
expose the great lateral muscular mass of the right side, and 
more particularly also the abdominal viscera which are here 
retained in siti. At the upper border of the ventral cavity the 
liver is shown resting, as it were, upon the stomach, the latter 
being insensibly continued into the uniformly thick intestine ; 
and the gut, after making five or six distinct sigmoidal flex- 
ures, terminates in front of the anal fin by a patent orifice. 
The surface of the liver was scarred by numerous worm-tracks, 
a few of the Entozoa still remaining within its substance, while 
larger and more vigorous specimens were groping their way 
among the lateral muscles, each worm being surrounded by a 
smooth and stoutish capsule. Portions only of these investing 
sheaths are seen in the accompanying drawing, it having been 
impossible, in the dissection, to expose any one of the parasites 
in its entirety. Several of them were afterwards dissected out 
and dropt into a tumbler of sea water, when, to our astonishment 
—for the fish had been dead about a week, and had been cast 
aside as refuse by the salesman of whom it was purchased— 
they moved about actively. On being further deprived of their 
investing capsules, the proboscidiform tentacula attached to 
the so-called head, were protruded and retracted in an irregular 
alternating manner. These movements continued until the 
third day following, when, muscular irritability having well 
nigh ceased, they were plunged into alcohol for future use and. 
preservation, Some of the worms removed were from fifteen 


The Sunfish as a Host. 87 


to twenty inches in length, but they were imperfect individuals. 
On a previous occasion, from the liver of a full-grown Ortha- 
goriscus—for the opportunity of examining which we were 
indebted to Professor Goodsir—we obtained several examples 
fully double this length. Even these were incomplete speci- 
mens; and it is impossible to calculate accurately the length 
any given worm may attain, because they are usually rolled 
together in inextricable confusion ; moreover, the sheaths are 
much longer than the worms themselves, being, as it were, left 
behind in the tissues of the “ host” wherever the parasites may 
have wandered. There are thus found permanent indications 
of the erratic movements of the “ ouests,” and were it possible 
in an adult sunfish to unravel the entire sheath of a single 
Tetrarhynchus reptans, we should probably find the capsule— 
representing, be it remembered, the entire life-wanderings of 
the tapeworm thus far—at least one hundred feet long. In this 
case, of course, we assume the worm to have entered the fish 
while the latter was quite young. Whatever reflections such. 
phenomena are calculated to excite, one certainly sees no 
reason to envy the piscine “host” thus destined to have its 
muscles and viscera tunnelled in all directions by an uninvited 
Tetrarhynch. 

Several questions here naturally suggest themselves, such 
as :—What is the object of this perpetual tunnellmg? Does 
the boring really cause suffering to the host? Do the parasites 
ever make their escape from the body of the fish? To some of 
these queries we believe ourselves capable of giving a satisfac- 
tory answer ; but before doing so, it is necessary that we should 
complete our account of the organization of this worm. In 
this view, therefore, we have to remark that fig. 2 is a slightly 
enlarged, but otherwise exact, copy of the upper end of the 
Tetrarhynehus enclosed within its transparent capsule. The 
rounded extremity is not merely the so-called head, but it em- 
braces also the neck and its subcervical enlargement—all these 


three distinct parts being represented in their unfolded condi- 


tion in fig. 3. In the latter drawing, the numeral is placed 
opposite the constricted portion of the hour-glass-shaped neck. 
Immediately below this enlargement is a still more attenuated 
portion corresponding with the narrow neck-like constriction 
shown in fig. 2. The swellings below this, again, are identical 
in the two figures, but in the lower illustration the body of the 
worm is more drawn out. The so-called head in fig. 3 dis- 
plays four proboscidiform tentacula—hence the generic title 
employed—and also four cephalic lobes, each of which is fur- 
nished with a sucking disk. In fig. 9, at the bottom of the 
plate, we have given an enlarged view of this so-called head, 
seen from above. The four proboscides are retracted within 


88 The Sunfish as a Host. 


sheathing-tubes, the orifices of the latter beg closed by four 
papilleeform elevations, symmetrically disposed near the centre. 
It will also be further seen that the sucking disks coalesce on 
either side, so that the four cephalic lobes are rather to be re- 
garded as two auriculate appendages, deeply cleft transversely 
in the middle line. In form they strangely resemble, as it 
were, a pair of cloven hoofs placed heel to heel. The four pro- 
boscides are club-shaped, each being furnished with a compli- 
cated armature of hooks, arranged in circular rows. The latter, 
though scarcely visible to the naked eye, present a formidable 
appearance when magnified. ‘This is shown in fig. 5, where 
one of them is enlarged twenty diameters. Very difficult was 
it found to ascertain the precise number of hooks, but after 
careful and oft-repeated examinations, we satisfied ourselves 
that each circle consisted of sixteen hooks (fig. 6), whilst there 
appeared to be fully one hundred of these rows on each pro- 
boscis. Hach tentaculum, therefore, was calculated to carry 
about 1600 hooks, which would give us altogether a total of 
more than 6000 of these little instruments on a single tape- 
worm. ‘The majority of the hooks displayed a tolerably uni- 
form length and thickness when compared with each other, 
but the two lowermost circles near the base of each proboscis 
were two or three times the size of any of the others. Fig. 7 
represents one of the large hooks, with its somewhat blunted 
extremity directed obliquely downwards; and fig. 8 shows one 
of the numerous small hooks having the end more curved, 
poimted, and retroverted. Both these figures are from hooks 
magnified about 250 diameters. The body of the Tetrarhyn- 
chus is distinctly segmented; the joints gradually acquirme 
greater conspicuity the further we recede from the so-called 
head. ‘This character is partly exhibited in the lower half of 
fig. 3, but a few well-marked articulations from the posterior 
region of the body are faithfully illustrated at fig. 4. Lastly, 
it is particularly worthy of remark, that none of the segments 
display the slightest indication of the presence of reproductive 
organs, such as we should undoubtedly have discovered if the 
tapeworm or its jomts had been fully developed and matured. 
The explanation of this will appear in the sequel. 

Reverting to the questions previously mooted, we may 
observe, that the object of the tunnelling process appears to be 
two-fold: first, m order that the animal may constantly obtain 
fresh nutriment, and secondly, because the creature is impelled 
by instinct to seek out another “‘residence,”’ which it can only 
gain by being transferred to a separate “host.” The tapeworm 
not being supplied with any mouth or digestive organs, ac- 
quires nutriment by imbibition through the general surface of 
the body ; and the reason why it needs transference to another 


The Sunfish as a Host. 89 


“host,” arises out of the circumstance that the joints cannot 
become mature until the parasite finds its way into the ali- 
mentary canal of the “ host” it is ultimately destined to occupy. 
It is a curious example of an animal perpetually striving to 
perform an act which cannot be accomplished by its own un- 
aided powers, for our Tetrarhynchus must wait until a shark or 
other large fish attack and devour the sun-fish before it can 
gain access to the stomach and intestines of the final ‘* host.” 
Although the mature condition of the joints or proglottides of 
Tetrarhynchus reptans at present remain unknown, it is quite 
certain that, no matter how long the immature strobila remains 
within the sunfish, it cannot attam sexual maturity until it is 
transferred in the manner pointed out. This law in the deve- 
lopment of tapeworms appears to be universal, and as such 
was, we believe, first recognised by Von Siebold. Another 
and more familiar illustration of its application is seen in the 
development of the Cysticercus fasciolaris in the liver of the 
mouse. It is not uncommon, in old mice especially, to find 
this cysticercus developed into a strobila or tapeworm several 
inches in length, whilst it is still coiled within the liver, but if 
the joints be examined, none of them will be found to contain 
reproductive organs, or even indications of them; as soon, 
however, as the cat—the final “host” of the parasite—swal- 
lows the mouse, the cysticercal condition of the immature tape- 
worm immediately disappears, and fresh joints are formed, 
which become sexually mature; in this state the strobila is 
recognised under the title of Tenia crassicolls. In regard to 
the question as to whether the boring of the young tapeworms 
through the flesh and viscera of the first “ host’? gives pain or 
otherwise, we cannot of course speak with absolute certainty, 
but from the slowness of the process and the extreme minute- 
ness of the boring apparatus, we think it very doubtful if the 
presence of the parasites is even felt at all. When, however, 
there are many of them, and they have by their complex and 
long-continued movements injured the secreting structure of 
the liver, we think they give pain indirectly, as it were, by 
causing the decay of that organ and the consequent enfeebling 
of the vital powers of the “‘ host.” It is at such a time that 
the sunfish would be easily overcome by its natural enemies, 
and the piscine life would thus be sacrificed for the advantage 
of the long-imprisoned guests. The Tetrarhynchi are passively 
transferred into the alimentary canal of their final “ host,” and, 
so far as our observations extend, we know of no instance 
where the young tapeworms escape by themselves from the 
body of the first “host” before they complete their final 
development. 


90 Honey, its Origin and Adulteration. 


HONEY, ITS ORIGIN AND ADULTHRATION.* 
BY W. W. STODDART. 


Honey is so familiar an object, and so well known to the 
youngest child, that it has become quite a household word. 
It has had its praises from every author and poet, from the 
sacred writers to the present day ; and yet it is very surprising 
how little mention is made in any chemical or botanical work 
of the changes that take place in its elimination, of its origin, 
or even of its composition. Like the foreigner who consulted 
Johnson’s Dictionary, the more he searched the more he was 
puzzled. Fownes, Turner, Gregory, and Stockhardt simply 
state that the solid crystalline portion of honey is grape-sugar, 
but say nothing of -the liquid. Johnston in the first volume of 
Chemistry of Common Life, says “Honey is formed or 
deposited naturally in the nectaries of flowers, and is extracted 
therefrom by the bees. When allowed to andl for some time, 
it separates ito a white solid sugar, consisting of white 
erystals, and a thick semifluid syrup. Both the solid and 
liquid sugars have the same general properties. The solid sugar 
of honey is identical with the sugar of the grape.” 

Dr. Hassall, in the article on honey, in his Food Adul- 
terations, after quoting the above, says that the regularly- 
formed crystals, myriads of which are present in honey, are 
identical im form with cane-sugar. Such is the drift of the 
whole information that’can be gathered respecting the compo- 
sition of honey. 

On dissecting the honey bee, we find the proboscis con- 
tinued into a beautiful ligula or tongue. Itis a flexile organ, 
covered with circlets of very minute hairs. The: ligula of the 
honey bee differs from that of the other divisions of the bee 
family (the Andreenidze) both in shape and microscopic appear- 
ance. It is probable that the bee uses the ligula, by mserting 
if in the nectar, which would be plentifully collected by means 
of the hairs before-mentioned. ‘These hairs very likely answer 
a somewhat similar purpose to the teeth of the molluscan 
tongue. At the base of the proboscis commences the cesopha- 
gus, which, after passing through the thorax, terminates in an 
expanded sac, termed the honeybag. ‘This is an elastic glan- 
dular organ, placed before the entrance to the true stomach. 
Into this sac the saccharine fluid enters after being swallowed. 
Should, however, any more solid substance be present, it is 
forwarded into the true stomach for trituration by the numerous 


5 ey author read a paper on this subject before the Bristol Miscroscopical — 
ociety 


Honey, its Origin and Adulteration. 91 


teeth with which it is furnished. The honey gland also secretes 
a peculiar acid to be mentioned presently. The bee retains the 
fluid portion in the honey sac till the proper time should arrive 
for deposition in the cell of the honeycomb. 

Before describing the floral fluid and its transition into 
honey, it will perhaps be better to briefly describe the appear- 
ance under the microscope of the different sugars that are 
connected with the present subject. These are of three dis- 
tinct kinds. 

Cane-sugar (sucrose) C,,H,,O,, Grape-sugar (glucose) 
C,,H,.0,.2HO, and Manna-sugar (mellitose) C.,H,,0,,,4HO. 
A fourth kind (fructose) is mentioned by some authors, but 
requires more confirmation before it can be regarded as a 
distinct sugar. 

Cane-sugar is the well-known crystalline substance usually 
procured from the cane, but isyfound occurring in beetroot, 
Indian corn, the lotus bean, and many other vegetables and 
fruits. When pure, cane-sugar forms very fine oblique rhom- 
boidal prisms, with dihedral summits. When crystallized on 
slides for the microscope, it always has a tendency to form flat 
bold crystals, which usually are so connected one with another 
as to cause a mass, which, when large, is commonly called 
sugar candy. Cane-sugar, when in contact with vegetable 
acids, has always a strong disposition to change into the 
second kind of sugar mentioned (grape-sugar). So much is 
this the case that the author has never yet found cane-sugar 
in a natural state unaccompanied by traces of grape-sugar. 

Grape-sugar (glucose) is the sweet substance found in the 
grape, dried raisins, diabetic urine, and wherever cane-sugar 
has been formed. Besides differing with chemical re-agents, 
grape-sugar has not the slightest resemblance under the micro- 
scope to that from the cane. It crystallizes generally both 
from water and alcohol in tufts, which consist of lamelle 
radiating from a centre. The author has slides in which 
glucose has crystallized in perfectly regular six-sided prisms, 
but these instances are very rare. When a solution is hastily 
evaporated, the crystals are beautifully dendritic. Glucose is 
formed in plants by the addition of three equivalents of water 
to one of sucrose, which change is caused by the continued 
increase of warmth, action of acids, or a principle called dias- 
tase, or all combined. For sugar being an organic body, like 
all such im the living tissues is constantly undergomg changes. 

The third variety to be mentioned is manna or mushroom- 
sugar (mellitose). It is formed always during the fermentation 
of cane, or grape-sugars. In old honey it exists in much 
greater proportion than in new. It crystallizes in long four- 
sided prisms. Mellitose differs from sucrose and glucose, in 


92 Honey, its Origin and Adulteration. 


being nearly incapable of fermentation, and is by these means 
obtained from honey for examination. A very remarkable fact 
is that manna-sugar occurs in many of our seaweeds, as Fucus 
vesiculosus, Halidrys siliquosa, Laminaria saccharina, etc. The 
latter contains as much as twelve per cent. It may be detected 
also in the dandelion and celery plants. 

All the sugars are splendid objects for the polariscope. aN 
very beautiful method of exhibiting manna-sugar is by fusing 
a little on a glass slip over a spirit-lamp, and when cooling, 
touching three or four spots with the point of a needle, when 
circular crystals will form, showing the purest and most ex- 
quisite colours, rivalling the similar and. well-known salicine 
slides. 

At the base of the corolla of a flower, on the thalamus, isa 
part termed by botanists ‘‘The Disk.” It is that portion 
which intervenes between the stamens and the pistil. {t is 
composed of bodies usually in the shape of scales or glands. 
When examined at the proper season, they are seen to abound 
in a thick, sweet fluid, which, since the days of Aristotle and 
Virgil, has rejoiced in the name of “nectar.” On this account 
the fruit yielding it received formerly the name of ‘‘ nectary.” 
Hyen in the present day those organs are the subject of much 
misapprehension. Linneus and his followers gave the term 
nectary to any gland or organ for whose office they could not 
otherwise account. 

The plants which furnish the greatest quantity of nectar, 
and therefore most liked by the bees, generally excrete it from 
the disk of the flower. 

On many plants, however, as the ranunculus and fritillaria, 
a small glandular organ occurs at the base of each petal, and 
in which also nectar is enclosed, though not in such profusion 
as in the disk before alluded to. 

As will presently be shown, this nectar is a simple solution 
of cane-sugar formed from the amylaceous sap of the flower 
and elaborated for the nutrition of stamens and pistil. What 
the bees find in the flowers is the surplus left when these 
organs have been supplied. ‘The author examined every flower 
he could collect at the early season of the year (April and May) 
and found sugar in them all, whether furnished with disks, or 
nectariferous glands, or not; and came to the conclusion that 
sugar is necessary to the male reproductive organs of the 
flower, as ibis in them chiefly to be found, the so-called nectari- 
ferous body merely serving the purpose of a reservoir. 

M. L. Bravais,in a paper published in Ann. des Sciences, 
2nd ser. vol. xvii. pp. 152, is of this opinion, and says :—The 
nectar-bearing parts occur rarely on the pistil or calyx, but 
generally on some part of the andreeceum, always accompany- 


Honey, its Origin and Adulteration. 93 


ing the discharge of the pollen. He divides the stamen into 
four parts, which, reckoning from below upwards, are—l, the 
stalk, 2, nectary, 3, anther, 4, the limb, and makes out the 
nectary to be a filament carrying either secreting hairs, or 
glands, or a nectariferous horn. The author was unable to 
make out this subdivision satisfactorily. 

The plants which in England are most attractive to bees 
are :— 


Mignonette. Rosemary. Gooseberry. 
Currant. Lime. Lemon Thyme. 
Hazel. Berberry. Heath. 
Wallflower. Buckwheat. Turnip. 
Hollyhock. Clover. Winter Aconite. 
Raspberry. Willow. Osier. 

Broom. Furze. Borage, etc. 


On examining an immature blossom of a wallflower, the 
vessels will be filled with an amylaceous fluid, which gives a 
distinct blue with iodine. After the lapse of from twenty-four 
to forty-eight hours, the flower having become much more ex- 
panded, and the stamens more mature, the fluid on being again 
tested will have a sweet taste, and give a dirty bluish-brown 
instead of a blue with iodine. 

On cutting out the disks of several ripe specimens of wall- 
flower, the author obtained a syrupy, clear, colourless fluid. 
This was mixed with a small quantity of distilled water, treated 
with lime and carbonic acid in the usual way, and filtered. 
The filtrate was then concentrated, and allowed to crystallize 
spontaneously on a glass slip. The result was a beautiful 
regular crop of crystals of cane-sugar, agreeing in their goniome- 
trical measurements with that substance. 

As the flower became more mature, the saccharine fluid was 


-acted upon by the vegetable acids more and more, until at 


length when the ovary being fertilized, and the flower dead, 
a last examination showed the saccharine residue on the withered 
disk to be nearly all grape-sugar, almost incapable of being 
fairly crystallized. 

The bee visiting the flowers when in their prime, inserts 
its ligula into the blossom, and laps up the greater portion of 
the liquid sugar, which after passing through the cesophagus . 
is deposited in the honey sac. It here comes in contact with 
the secreting glands, which emit an acid which the author’s 
experiments showed to be identical with formic acid. This it 
is which doubtless causes the peculiar tingling sensation at the 
back of the throat when much honey has been swallowed, and 
which is more perceptible to some than others. The bee after 
its arrival at the hive empties the contents of the honey sae 
into the comb, where it remains until the store of honey is 


taken. When separated from the comb, the purest honey is a 


94 Honey, its Origin and Adulteration. 


clear, thick liquid, which after standing becomes thicker, till 
at length it “‘ sets,” as itis technically called. A small bit of 
this placed under a quarter of an inch objective, shows that 
this is owing to the grape-sugar (which has gradually been 
forming at the expense of the cane) crystallizing out in ex- 
tremely thin, regular six-sided prisms. All the cane-sugar is 
retained in the liquid portion of the honey. ‘This crystalliza- 
tion proceeds as the whole of the cane-sugar becomes converted. 
into grape. When this takes place, so great is the proportion 
of crystals that the honey is said to ‘‘ candy,” and is not con- 
sidered so good from the presence of acetic acid, which is pro- 
duced by the grape-sugar, which in its turn undergoes a change 
through the agency of fermentation. 

The honey crystals are not identical, as Dr. Hassall says, 
with those of cane-sugar. Although they greatly resemble the 
summits of regular prisms of the latter, yet the angles do not 
measure the same. Besides, cane-sugar always enlarges the ~ 
sides instead of the summits, which are very much narrowed. 

On more closely examining a slide containmg a bit of old 
honey, besides the prisms will be seen small bundles of crystals. 
These are the manna-sugar. ‘They remain after honey has been 
fermented, and may thus be separated. With these, small round 
or oval bodies will also be noticed spread over the field of the 
microscope, and are the pollen globules, showing in a beautiful 
manner from what flower the honey was collected. Of course 
they vary with every locality ; but it 1s worthy of remark that 
a bee will only visit the same species of flower at the same 
journey ; for the examination of a great number of bees will 
show that two kinds of pollen are never found on the same 
insect, although they may be very different on another working 
_ onthe same flower bed. A single bee with all its industry, 
energy, and innumerable journies it has to perform, will not 
collect more than a tea-spoonful of honey in a single season, 
and yet the total weight of honey taken from a single hive is 
often from sixty to one hundred pounds. A very profitable 
lesson of what great results may arise from persevering and 
associated labour ! 

The evidence on which the author relied for the presence 
of formic acid was by distilling the honey and receiving the 
distillate in an alkaline solution. The resulting solution, after 
decomposition by an acid and evaporation, afforded all the usual 
reactions, and readily reduced the salts of silver. 

The foregoing facts, therefore, clearly show that— 

First. Honey is derived simply from a solution of cane- 
sugar identical in every respect with that from the sugar-cane. 

Secondly. That it afterwards receives the addition of a small 
quantity of formic acid from the glands of the bee. 


ee 


The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 95 


‘Thirdly. That the cane-sugar afterwards becomes gradually 
altered into grape-sugar by common chemical composition. 

The flavour is of course quite accidental, and dependent on 
the aroma of the flowers the bees have visited. 

_ For the purpose of illustrating the lamentable manner in 
which so useful an article as honey is frequently adulterated, 
the author exhibited four examples, all purchased in Bristol. 

No. 1 was adulterated with cheap arrowroot and common 
brown sugar. ‘The starch granules were easily detected under 
the microscope. The crystals of brown sugar were in consider- 
able quantity, accompanied with the disgusting acarus, alive 
and in all stages of growth. It was remarked that in this and 
several other specimens the cane-sugar crystals present in the 
honey had no resemblance to the engravings in Dr. Hassall’s 
work, nor in Dr. Lankester’s Half Hours with the Microscope. 
Here the sugar had always the appearance of sugar-candy, or 
else flattened prisms, but totally distinct from the genuine 
honey crystals. 

No. 2 had been lowered with brown sugar only, and in 
every respect resembled No. 1, minus the starch granules. 

No. 3 was adulterated with pipeclay and turmeric. The 
peculiar cell structure demonstrated the presence of turmeric. 
The clay was easily separated by washing. The author ex- 
hibited a good sized button of pipeclay, which he had obtained 
in this manner. 

No. 4 was adulterated with plaster of Paris and brown 
sugar. In this mstance the gypsum was procured in the same 
manner as the pipeclay of No. 3. The usual chemical tests— 
barium and oxalic acid, proved its composition. 

With all these honeys a considerable quantity of water must 
have been added, for they continued in a liquid state throughout 
the winter, without the slightest appearance of setting. 


THE ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATION OF ANIMALS. 


Durine the years 1855 and 1856 M. Quatrefages published a 
series of articles in the Revue des Deux-Mondes, which he has 
now elaborated into a book entitled Métamorphose de ? Homme et 
des Animaux ; and as this work deals in a suceinct and agree- 
able form with questions of great interest, we propose in this 
paper to give an account of the principal results which are set 
forth in its pages. In distinct opposition to the school of 
Heterogenists—represented in France by M. Pouchet and in 
England by Dr. Grant—M. Quatrefages adheres to the maxim 
of the illustrious Harvey, Omne vivum ex ovo—* Every living 


96 The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 


being from an egg;” and all the cases of eggless production 
he treats as phenomena of individual growth, assembling the 
entire group under the new-fangled and not very happy desig- 
nation of Geneagenesis, or the “ Generation of Generations.” 
“ Hvery living being,” he says, “‘ and consequently every animal, 
comes froma germ. With the organization of this germ com- 
mences a series of transformations, general or partial, rapid or 
slow, and which only terminate with its life.” All animals 
likewise undergo transformations, which, considered radically, 
““are due to the same cause, and are effected by the same 
methods.” The germs or first rudiments of living things may 
be referred to three types. Animals multiply by eggs and by 
buds, which are either permanent or “caducous.”* The ege 
method may be regarded as “‘ fundamental, and the distinction 
between oviparous and viviparous species, although still 
admitted in scientific phraseology, is in reality only nominal. 
Baér, in discovering the egg of the mammalia, M. Coste, in 
demonstrating that this egg possesses the same parts as the egg 
of birds, have established this fact, which has been put out of 
doubt by the profound researches of those two naturalists and 
by the admirable labours of English and German physiologists, 
Barry, Bernhardt, Bischoff, Wharton Jones, Valentin, Wagner, 
etc. It is now plainly demonstrated that the mammalia, includ- 
ing man himself, spring, like birds and reptiles, from veritable 
egos.” 
Bis the question arises, What is anegg? M. Quatrefages 
answers, “ Three spheres enclosed one in the other and con- 
tained in a transparent membrane, constitute the germ.”” The 
ego may differ in accessories, but ‘“‘ we always find in the vitel- 
lime membrane the vitellus, or yolk, enveloping the germinative 
vesicle of Purkinye, which itself includes the germinating spot 
of Wagner. The precise functions of each of these spheres is 
far from being determined, but it is at least certain that the 
vitellus is especially composed of organizable and nutritive 
materials. In certain animals its alimentary provision is con- 
siderable: a small part suffices for the constitution of the new 
creature, which nourishes itself and grows at the expense of the 
rest.” The fish, for example, comes out of the egg completely 
formed, and gradually assimilates the matter which his stomach 
has enclosed. Among the viviparous animals the vitellus is 
very small, andthe embryo is nourished by materials obtained 
elsewhere. ‘The oviparous creatures lay their eggs, the vivipa- 


* This term is borrowed from the botanists. In Professor Henslow’s valuable 
Dictionary of Botanical Terms we read “ caducous (caducus, ready to fall) when 
a part falls off very early compared with other parts with which it is associated. 
Thus the sepals of many poppies fall as soon as the flower begins to expand.” 
Caducous germs fall for the purpose of development. - 


The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 97 


rous retain them for internal development ; but birds, worms, 
reptiles, and men, all are hatched. 

The viviparous, and many of the oviparous tribes, resemble 
their parents as soon as they have passed the foetal stage. The 
marsupial animals, such as the kangaroo, forming no real 
exception, as the seclusion of their young in theypouch is only a 
second act of gestation. In other species—all of them oviparous 
—the offspring, at the moment of leaving the egg, differs com- 
pletely from both its father and its mother. It may possess 
organs which they have not, and be destitute of organs with 
which they are furnished, so that changes and metamorphoses 
are required to bring tt back to the original type. M. Quatre- 
faves proposes to restrict the term transformation to the desig- 
nation of those changes which the germ experiences in becoming 
an embryo, or which it undergoes while still enclosed in the egg. 
Metamorphosis, in hke manner, designates changes altering the 
character of the creature, and, occurring after it has left the egg, 
or been hatched. Geneagenisis refers to the changes which 
“affect the generations themselves.” 

In discussing the transformations of the egg, M. Quatrefages 
refers particularly to his own observations of the Serpula and 
Teredo. After the laying of their ova, the eggs, whether fecun- 
dated or not, exhibit an internal commotion; “ a mysterious 
force agitates the yolk ; granulations accumulate now at one 
point and now at another,” so that the shadowy mass changes 
its aspect every moment. M. Quatrefages considers that simi- 
lar changes take place in the eggs of higher animals although 
they may be slower, and more difficult to trace. In the Serpula 
and Teredo eggs the agitation causes the “ Purkinje vesicle” 
and the “spot of Wagner’”—+to disappear. If the eggs have not 
been fecundated, the movements become accelerated and irre- 
gular, and, finally, decomposition ensues. All through the 
animal kingdom the male element appears to excite and regu- 
late the germinating force. In the eggs of the creatures named, 
a little nipple appears on the surface of the altered yolk, from 
which one or two transparent globules are expelled, the use of 
which is unknown. 

This occurs whether the eggs have been fertilized or not. 
If fertilized, the expulsion of the globules is succeeded, “ whe- 
ther it be inthe mammalia or the serpulee,” by a short period 
of repose. When activity recommences constrictions become 
visible, and the yolk assumes a mulberry aspect. The details of 
the process varyin different animals, ‘‘but in all, the consequence 
of the phenomenon is the formation of a primitive organized 
layer which envelopes the yolk, and is called the blastoderm. 
As soon as organization begins, it assumes distinctive characters ; 
“the germ becomes the embryo, and from its origin reveals the 


98 The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 


fundamental characteristics of the group of which the new crea- 
ture will form a part.” 

We must refer the reader to M. Quatrefages’ agreeable 
volume for further details on this branch of the subject, and pass 
to the consideration of a few points in the development of the 
ego of the mamamalia. Here our author tells us the heart soon 
makes its appearance, accompanied by arteries and veins, and 
soon after it the nervous system, the digestive tube appearing 
more late. This order of succession is directed by the method ~ 
of nutrition, and it is inverted among the invertebrata, where 
the digestive apparatus precedes the circulatory. In watching 
the process of transformation, “ every day, every hour, the scene 
changes, and this instability effects essential as well as necessary 
parts, etc. . . Here cavities partition themselves into distinct 
chambers, or extend themselves into canals; and these, in their 
turn, are filled up and converted into ligaments ; films are rolled 
up into tubes; isolated parts solder themselves together into 
continuous organs, or uniform masses divide themselves and 
form several organs. At the same time, relations and propor- 
tions change each instant. Parts which had been almost com- 
founded, separate and become strangers; others, which had 
been separated, approach and contract intimate union. Organs 
with temporary functions, grow, increase rapidly, acquire an 
enormous size, and then become atrophied, and disappear. 
Others stop at a given moment, while all grows around them. 
They retain their place, and will be found in the adult, where 
they have no other apparent part than to bear witness to a state 
of things which no longer exists.” 

Having got out of the egg and been born, the young mam- 
mal experiences transformations,* the proportions of the several 
parts altermg at each stage, that of puberty being highly in- 
teresting and important. MM. Andral and Gavarret state that 
- at an early age boys and girls respire with equal vigour. Before 
puberty M. Quatrefages calls them neither males nor females, 
but neuters. “‘ But as soon,” he says, “as the sexes are charac- 
terized, the respiration of the young man exhibits a redoubled 
and rapidly augmenting activity, while in the young girl and 
young woman this function remains stationary. About the age 
of thirty the former burnst about one hundred and seventy or a 
hundred and eighty-six grains of carbon m an hour. Subse- 
quently, when the progress of age, and its accompanying trans- 
formation, cause the two sexes to approach by effacing their 
more salient characteristics, the respiratory activity of the 

* M. Quatrefages entitles the chapter from which these remarks are taken 
“ Transformations des Mammiféres hors de ’ceuf.” Thus he does not follow the 


nomenclature which he recommends, and according to which these changes would 


be metamorphoses. 
+ The non-chemical reader may be reminded that respiration is a process of 
combustion. ; 


The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 99 


woman comes nearer to that of the man, but without reaching 
so high a limit.” 

From transformation we pass naturally to metamorphosis, 
and we find that the larva of an insect or crustacean may be 
regarded as an embryo with an independent life, which obtains 
its own food instead of bemg nourished by its mother, and which 
undergoes before our eyes transformations analogous to those 
which the young of viviparous creatures experience inside the 
maternal organism. A proximate cause of metamorphosis may 
be found in the small amount of organizable material supplied 
by the yolk of the eggs of creatures which exhibit its peculiar 
phenomena. In common language, the more imperfect the 
condition in which the egg turns out its inhabitant, the more 
extensive the changes which the creature must afterwards 
undergo. M. Quatrefages observes that, compared with the 
egos of certain molluscs, those of insects are enormous. Thus, 
the ege of the Cossus ligniperda, which Mr. Noel Humphreys 
discoursed of in our last number, is about “ thirty thousand 
times bigger than the egg of a teredo.” We cannot therefore 
be surprised that from the former there emerges a caterpillar 
or animal of a complicated construction, while the ovum of the 
teredo yields only a simple creature, “‘a homogeneous pulp, in 
which a digestive tube is vaguely discerned. ‘The first has to 
fabricate certain organs, but its chief work is to develope and 
and modify those which it possesses, while the last has every- 
thing to acquire.” In contemplating the changes which we 
can observe in the lower vertebrates or molluscs we are in- 
sensibly led to the philosophy of the case. If we observe the 
gils and tail of the tadpole disappear, we must, as M. Quatre- 
fages says, exclaim, ‘ Here are organs that become atrophied or 
dwindle.” If we compare the abdomen of a young crab with 
that of the adult animal, we conceive the idea of “ arrested 
development,” and if we observe the Lernea* having its limbs, 
which first acted as oars, changed into a kind of anchor to 
fasten it to its prey, we cannot but admire the way in which 
nature appropriates an existing organ to a novel use, and we 
find the idea of “‘ transformation.” In these and similar transi- 
tions there is nothing violent, but all goes on in measured 
order and progression. In our author’s words, “the gills of 
the tadpole do not fall off to make room for lungs; the tail is 
not detached, because the legs are ready. No; as the one 
pushes on its growth, with bones, muscles, nerves, and vessels, the 
other diminishes in all its parts. Molecule by molecule the one 
is absorbed; molecule by molecule the other is built up.” The 
moults of crabs and other crustacea do not prove exceptions to 
this rule, for although the actual change of the hard integu- 


* Described by Mr. Brady, in our July number.] 


100 The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 


ment appears sudden, the internal processes which lead to it 


have been gradually carried on. Among insects the larva pre- 
pares the materials which the chrysalis will require ; it has, so 
to speak, stored up in a magazine the materials necessary for 
its transformation. 

We now come to the class of facts which M. Quatrefages 
groups together under one term, ‘ Geneagenesis.” As our 
readers will probably know, those vexatious inhabitants of the 
greenhouse or garden, the plant-lice, or Aphides, produce a 
series of offspring without the conjunction of two sexes, and in 
this mode of proceeding, Bonnet discovered unexpected facts. 
«He found that all through the fine weather the aphides repro- 
duce their race, if isolated, but when the temperature falls, these 
animals, returning to ordinary conditions, propagate by eggs 
which demand the conjoint action of a father and a mother. 
These ege’s pass the winter glued to the branches of the trees on 
which the colony dwelt that was destroyed by the cold. When 
they are hatched in spring they yield viviparous individuals only ; 
in the autumn males and females appear, and from this moment 
oviparous generation recommences its work.” It would have 
been impossible to place these curious incidents in their true posi- 
tion if ‘Trembley and others had not observed that polyps and 
similar animals of simple structure can propagate like vegetables 
by buds. It was also necessary that Chamisso should make his 
discovery that the Salpze produce their offspring in the strange 
fashion which he characterized as the “alternation of genera- 
tions ;”? and here we cannot do better than borrow M. Quatre- 
fawes’ description of a salpa, for the benefit of those to whom 
this interesting inhabitant of our seas is unknown. He says: 
“¢ Salpze are marine molluscs of a very queer shape, which it is 
difficult to describe. We may, however, figure one as an 
irregular crystal cylinder, perfectly transparent, in the interior 
of which is suspended a proportionably small mass of opaque 
lively coloured matter, called the nucleus. This is formed by 
the junction of the principal viscera. The cylinder represents 
the mantle and the shell of ordinary molluses, and it is pierced 
towards each extremity. The water necessary for its respira- 
tion enters at one of these apertures and is expelled from the 
other, thanks to the contractions of the mantle ; and making its 
exit with rapidity, it pushes the animal in an opposite direction, 
so that the creature swims solely by means of its respiratory 
movements.” For a long while the attention of naturalists was 
drawn to these objects, ‘‘ whose phosphorescence was remark- 
able even among the fiery waves of the intertropical ocean,” 
and they sometimes discovered them in an isolated condition, 
and sometimes in chains. It was Chamisso who explained this 
riddle. He saw that the’Salpze were androgynous (bisexual) and 


a ed ae 


The Origin and Transformation of Anmals. 101 


viviparous ; that they came into the world in the shape that they 
preserved all their lives; ana that, strange to say, a solitary 
mother only brought forth infants united in colonies, and these 
in their turn engendered only solitary individuals. It followed 
from this that a Salpa never resembled its mother or its son, 
but always its grandfather or its grandson.” Upon this 
curious state of things, M. Quatrefages remarks that “ me- 
tamorphosis here influenzes generations and not individuals, 
and matters proceed as if the caterpillar, instead of becoming 
transformed, gave birth to complete butterflies, which in their 
turn reproduced the caterpillars.” 

It is, in fact, a case of the alternation of generations, the 
precise nature of the process being left for Krohn, Huxley, 
Leuckhart, and Vogt to elucidate. Before completing this 
curious story, let us follow M. Quatrefages, and advert to a 
sunilar set of incidents in the domestic manners of the Meduse, , 
or jelly-fish. ‘“‘ For more than a century,” as he tells us, 
zoologists had admitted among the other great divisions of the 
subkingdom of the Radiata, the class of Acalepha, or medusa (sea 
nettles, jelly-fish), and that of polyps. This distinction seemed 
more than justified, as differences between the two groups were 
detected, more profound, and more numerous than those which 
separate the reptiles from the birds. There was in fact no 
resemblance in external aspect or internal organization. The 
jelly-fish, or Medusze, for example, are free swimmers, and 
mostly solitary; while only a few polyps enjoy a crawling 
motion, nearly all are fixed, and most of them live in colonies. 
Notwithstanding these and other differences, the two classes 
approximated as their history becafhe known. ‘‘ The medusa 
lays eggs, well characterized by the existence of three concen- 
tric spheres, of which we have already spoken. These eggs 
transform themselves into larve, which at first differ little from 
those of the Serpula or the Teredo. Their oval and apparently 
homogeneous bodies are covered with vibratory cilia, and 
exhibit a small depression in front. They swim for some time 
with vivacity, like the infusoria, which they resemble sufficiently 
to deceive any one whose observations were restricted. This 
first phase of the life of a Medusa lasts about eight and forty 
hours. The movements then grow slower, the young larvee seem 
fatigued, and by the aid of the little depression attach them- 
selves to some solid body. Henceforth the wanderer vegetates 
in one spot—a thick mucous which it secretes forms a large 
disk that fixes it firrmly.* The young Medusa changes its 
shape as well as its mode of life. It elongates rapidly. Its 

* Ina note M. Quatrefages says that he has reproduced the opinion of Sars, 


although he thinks it probable that the so-called mucous is a veritable expansion 
of the sarcode. ; 


VOL. I1.——NO. II, i 


102 The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 


pedicle grows narrower, and its free extremity swells out in a 
club form. Soon an opening appears in the middle of this ex- 
tremity, and an internal cavity is seen. Four little nipples spring 
from the margin, and grow into arms, while others are not slow 
to appear, and elongate in their turn. The infusory of yester- 
day is changed intoapolyp.” In this state 1t exhibits the pro- 
perties and. ways of the polyp group, multiplymg by buds and 
by stoles,* from which new polyps arise. The formation 
thus produced resembles “horns widely expanded, but short, 
and having their margins garnished with twenty or thirty slender 
and moveable filaments.” M. Quatrefages compares this mode 
of growth to the proceedings of a strawberry plant, and thus 
continues the story. ‘‘ The Medusa lives some time under this 
form, until at last, one horn acquires three or four times the 
length of its companions, and at the same time becomes cylin- 


_drical. A circular depression then forms near the crown of 


tentacles, others follow at regular intervals towards the 
pedicle, which is never reached. The body thus becomes 
eircled with ten to fourteen rmgs.” After undergoing deyvelop- 
ment, these rmgs are successively detached, and swim away. 
They are in fact medusoids, and gradually assume the true 
medusa form. These remarkable steps are again compared by 
M. Quatrefages to animaginary case in the insect world. Sup- 
pose, for example, “‘a butterfly laid an egg, that from this egg 
there came an earthworm, which changed into a caterpillar, from 
which other caterpillars grew like branches. Suppose, then, 
that each caterpillar retained its head, but suffered its body to 
be transformed into a chrysalis; that the body was then con- 
stricted at intervals, and that it gradually appeared to be com- 
posed of butterflies piled one on the top of another; that the 
head subsequently fell off, and the butterflies flew away and 
eradually assumed their full proportions and perfect forms.” 
This certainly would be an incredible narration, but transfer the 
incidents from the insect world to the jelly-fish, and it is pretty 
much what actually takes place. 

The interpretation of this class of facts renders-it necessary 
to bear in mind the words larva, chrysalis, and perfect insect, 
and to remember the conditions which they indicate. Turning 
to the classes of animals undergoing the peculiar changes which 
we have traced, M. Quatrefages proposes to adopt the nomen- 
clature of Van Beneden, and to “call séolex the animalcule 
which emerges from the ege of a medusa, or any other species 
following the same method of reproduction. Extending the 


* ® “Stole (stolo, a shoot), a lax trailing branch given off at the summit of the 
root, and taking root at intervals, whence fresh buds are developed.” —Hrnstow, 
Dictionary of Botanical Terms. TZoologists borrow this term to describe an 
analogous process in certain animals. 


a 


eS 


i) 
q 
i 


1 


The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 103 


meaning assigned by Sars to the term strobila, it will designate 
every compound being which proceeds from a scolex, and which 
is destined to produce isolated individuals. Lastly, borrowing 
from Dujardin an expression which he employs in a similar 
sense, proglottis will designate the individuals springing from a 
strobila, and which complete themselves by the acquisition of 
reproductive organs, and thus close the cycle of development.” 
Between the primitive scolex and the strobila several generations 
may, as we have seen, be intercalated, and in this case our 
author calls the first scolex proto-scolex, the second deuto-scolex, 
and so on, signifying first, second, etc. by Greek words. 

In the medusa, we saw that “each egg which it laid, pro- 
duced not a single medusa, as a butterfly’s egg yields a single 
butterfly, but a great number of individuals. Secondly, 
this reproduction took place in an indirect or mediate way ; for 
between two generations of medusa, several generations of very 
different creatures were produced by budding. ‘To speak in a 
still more general way, it 1s a case of multiple generation by the 
aid of a single germ. It is that which I have endeavoured to 
express by the word geneagenesis, which is applicable to every 
method of reproduction that exhibits this characteristic feature.” 
The common polyp multiplies by buds, and also by eges; but 
when it lays eges it dies. Thus from the polyp egg comes a 
single individual, a scolex, capable of producing others like 
itself, which can bud in their turn and repeat the process, and 
which end, like the original stem animal, in acquiring sexual 
attributes. ‘“Itis as if there came from the ege of a butter- 
fly, an animal having the appearance of a perfect insect, but 
destitute of reproductive organs, although able to give rise by 
budding to individuals like itself, and which, together with 
itself, would ultimately acquire the attributes of a father and 
mother.” In such instances geneagenesis is reduced to its 
simplest elements, each scolex transforms itself into a pro- 
glottis, and the strobila. stage does not appear. 

Among the ascidians, of which the Salpa may be taken as an 
example, “ the scolex transforms itself directly into a proglottis 
which in its turn produces a whole generation of individuals 
like itself. ... . In this case, to follow our comparison, it is 
as if the butterfly’s ege produced a caterpillar which arrived at a 
perfect state, and afterwards from the butterfly coming from the 
primitive egg, other butterflies had sprung, of which it was nei- 
ther the father nor the mother, but only the parent.” ‘With the 
plant-lice we arrive at further complications. ‘The egg laid 
im autumn engenders a scolex having the character of a nymph 
or pupa. During the spring this nymph does not lay eggs, 
but forms buds which arise and organize themselves in the in- 
terior of its body, instead of making their appearance and 


104 The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 


developing themselves on the outside, as with the polyps and 
the meduse. When the temperature falls, the normal repro- 
ductive apparatus shows itself in distinct individuals, and then 
we find males and females, that is to say, true proglottis.” M. 
Quatrefages does not consider that the main facts demand. any 
other interpretation, in consequence of Heiden’s discovery that 
an aphis, after producing offspring ali through the season 
aganucally, or in a spinster state, ends in acquiring sexual 
characteristics. This he calls the scolex becoming a proglottis.* 

With reference to the Salpa and its curious “ alternation of 
generation,” M. Quatrefages observes: “ Thanks to Messrs. 
Krohn and Huxley, we now know that with the Salpze there is 
not only an alternation in form and condition, but also in the 
method of reproduction. From their united. labours, it appears 
that the chained Salpze are at once males and females, and that 
they lay eggs from which the isolated Salpz are produced. 
These last are neuters, and give rise, by internal budding, to 
chained Salpz only. . . . Among the Salpe it is as if the 
ego of a butterfly produced a caterpillar, from which sprung a 
chain of butterflies fastened together, and flying without power 
of separation.” 

The phenomena of geneagenesis are confined to the lower 
grades of the animated world: no vertebrate animal exhibits 
them, and they are rare amongst invertebrates of an elevated 
organization. Independent of the plant-lice, insects rarely fur- 
nish instances of this peculiar mode of multiplication, and M. 
Quatrefages tells us that among the superior annulated animals, 
or those possessing articulated feet, it is only found among in- 
sects and crustaceans. “ Moreover, among these latter we have 
no other example than that afforded by the Daphina; at least 
nothing of the kind has yet been noticed in the myriopods, 
spiders, and cirrhipedes.t 

Among the worms, or inferior annulated animals, it 1s com- 
monly found, and M. Quatrefages regards jissiparity or multi- 
plication by division as belonging to this system of reproduc- 


tion. He observes, with special reference to Nais, Nemertes, and 


other worms, “ Durmg many generations the individuals pro- 
duced by this method are neuters like their parent; at length, 
under conditions which are not known, the sexes appear, and 
the species is propagated afresh by means of eggs.” He adds, 
that no mollusc, properly so called, adopts this mode of propa- 
gation, but that among the molluscoida (or mollusc-like crea- 
tures) geneagenesis seems to be the rule. 


* Detailed information concerning this subject will be found in Mr. Huxley’s pa- 
per on the Organic Reproduction and Morphology of the Aphis. Linn. Trans. 1858. 

+ The Scolopendra, or “ Hundred Legs,” common in gardens, is a myriopod ; 
the acorn barnacle, so frequent on seaside rocks, is a cirrhipede. 


The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 105 


We must refer the reader to the elegantly written work 
upon which this paper is founded, for details of the reproduc- 
tive arrangements of the Radiata, and intestinal worms; suffice 
it to say, that among all the diversities which they present, the 
author traces the leading facts of his doctrine of geneagenesis, 
and feels justified in arriving at the conclusion that gemmiparous 
or budding reproduction is not able to perpetuate the species, 
but that after a given time the formation of true eges becomes 
necessary. He rejects the Parthenogenesis, or Virgin-genera- 
tion doctrine of Mr. Owen, and sees in all the cases to which such 
an explanation has been applied, illustrations of the methods 
we have explained. With the views of Dr. Carpenter he con- 
curs, regarding oviparity or eg@ generation, as entirely distinct 
from gemmiparity or bud generation; the first demands the 
concurrence of two systems of organs, special and distinct ; the 
second, as Dr. Carpenter expresses it, is a multiplication of cells 
by a process of continual growth. All reproduction that does 
not involve the formation of true eggs he regards as phenomena 
of budding, which in their turn are phenomena of growth, and 
as the manifestations of growth are limited, the budding pro- 
cess has its duration limited also, and can never perpetuate a 
race. 

M. Quatrefages is of course aware of the difficulty of proving 
the intervention of a father in all cases of continuous repro- 
duction in the insect world. As we have seen, the necessity for 
such an individual may be postponed for many generations, and 
some naturalists have thought it might be permanently dis- 


_ pensed with. It may be asked, Is the father a constant item 


in the natural arrangements for the preservation of species? 
Bernoulli, Treviranus, Suckow, and Burmeister had observed 
among several nocturnal moths, and Malpighi, Herold, Curtis, 
and Fi iippi had noticed among the silkworm moths, that females 
without any connection with ‘the males of their species could lay 
fertile eggs, and M. Carlier has obtained three virgin genera~- 
tions of the Liparis dispar. 

These observations seemed little favourable to the preten- 
sions of the male sex, but subsequent discoveries reasserted its 
importance. M. Zierzon, curé of Carlsmark, in Silesia, a man 
whom M. Quatrefages describes as endowed with a rare faculty 
of observation, declared that while the Queen Bee preserved 
her virginity intact, she could only lay eggs that produced 
males. He admitted with Huber that the queen could receive on 
a single occasion enough of the fertilizing fluid to last for several 
years, but he contended that she could decide whether the ege 
which she laid should be acted upon by it or not. In the first . 
case he said a female bee was the result, and in the latter a 
male. It appears that with bees the union of the two sexes 


106 The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 


can only occur during flight, so that cutting off the wings of a 
female bee, or a natural defect having the same result, will pre- 
clude her laying fecundated eggs. It also appears that ifa 
married queen is exposed to a degree of cold capable of injuring 
the fecundating fluid, or if the communication is stopped be- 
tween the vessel in which she retains it, and the canal through 
which the eggs are deposited, she only produces males after 
such an accident, although she had previously been producing 
bees of her own sex. In Germany, where bee culture occupies 
much attention, it seems that efforts to produce crosses between 
two races confirmed Zierzon’s ideas. ‘Thus when local bees 
were crossed with the Ligurian bee, the offspring resembled 
both parents so far as workers and queens were concerned, but 
the male progeny reproduced the maternal type in all its purity. 
Siebold and Leuckart undertook a scientific examination of the 
facts thus disclosed by Zierzon and Berlepsch, and the result of 
post-mortem examinations of married and unmarried queens, and. 
of the eggs which they produced, showed that the curé of 
Carlsmark was right. 

At this point of the argument the question arises whether 
the unimpregnated eggs are true eggs at all. ‘To answer this 
M. Quatrefages has recourse to the labours of Mr. Huxley in 
reference to the reproduction of the aphides, and he observes, 
“in the three last chambers of the ovary of the oviparous 
aphis, figured by Huxley, we see the egg in its nascent condi- 
tions; represented only by an isolated vesicle of Purkinje, very 
small, but well characterized and already possessing the spot of 
Wagner. This vesicle grows in passing through the second 
chamber, but it is only in the third that 1t begins to surround 
itself with a vitellus, all the while leaving the germinating spot 
distinct and noticeable . . . . with the viviparous aphis, Huxley 
describes and figures these phenomena very differently. Here 
the last chamber of the ovary is filled with a pale homogeneous 
matter, in which are a dozen cells with opaque nuclei.* A por- 
tion of this matter is separated from the rest by a constriction 
of the walls of the chamber, which becomes more and more 
pronounced. . . . . . Nothing here resembles the true “ vesicle 
of Purkinje,” or the true “spot of Wagner,’—“the funda- 
mental elements of eggs properly so-called.” Acting upon 
this view, M. Quatrefages considers the unfecundated eggs to 


* “Dans laquelle sont comme noyées une douzaine de cellules 4 noyau opaque.” 


The Origin and Transformation of Animals. 107 


development without male intervention belongs to the pheno- 
mena which we have been studying, and that we have thus 
not parthenogenesis but geneagenesis.’ 

Regarding no object as a veritable egg which does not 
possess the Purkinje vesicle, and the Wagner spot, M. Quatre- 
fages considers that cases of parthenogenesis will be greatly 
diminished, but he is convinced they will not be entirely obl- 
terated from the book of science. He admits, without, as he 
says, going as far as Huxley, Owen, and Lubbock, that there 
exist “‘intermediaries ’’? between eggs and buds, but after all 
reservations, “ parthenogesis is not in his eyes a constant fact.’” 
He admits that there exist “true females laying veritable eggs 
which develope themselves without male intervention in any 
way whatever ;” but he thinks these phenomena are supposed 
to be much more frequent than is really the case, and that re- . 
production by females only, tends to exhaust itself, and that 

‘always, the intervention of the male, recurring at a given 

moment, as a necessary element in the perpetuity of species, is 

evidently one of the great laws of nature.’ The father is thus 

“as necessary as the mother for the indefinite duration of species, 

and the point of departure for a cycle of generations is not 

Sy an egg, but a fertilized egg.’ Parthenogenesis is then 
“only a particular case of geneagenesis.’ 

We cannot now follow M. Quatrefages through the vegetable 
kingdom in which he pursues his theme, but we may observe 
that philosophers, who require every step in an inductive process 
of reasoning to be strictly proved, will hesitate before they 
affirm with him that “a father anda mother—that is a male and 
a female—such is the origin of every living being.” They will 
likewise prefer a frank confession of ignorance as to how and 
why the characteristics of mdividuals descend to their posterity, 
to the assertion that ‘an essence proper to the character of 
each being” is received from its ancestors and transmitted to 
its posterity. All, however, will allow that M. Quatrefages has 
produced an admirably written and learned work, which sup- 
plies the profoundest naturalist with deep matter for investi- 
gation and thought, while from the elegance of the language 


and the clearness of the style, it is admirably adapted for 
popular use. 


108 Chemical Manufactures. 


CHEMICAL MANUFACTURES, AS ILLUSTRATED IN 
THH EXHIBITION OF 1862. 


BY J. W. M‘GAULEY. 


Iv is probable that in no department of the Exhibition is the 
progress of Science more clearly demonstrated than in that 
which is devoted to chemical products. ‘The various substances 
which are found there, and the different’ compounds, are so 
conveniently classified, and the specimens themselves are, 
in many cases, such beautiful objects, that a careful imspec- 
tion of them is attended with both profit and pleasure. What 
can be more agreeable than the brilliantly white crystalline 
masses of sal-ammoniac, alum, etc., or more pleasing to the eye 
than the rich colours of the chromates and sulphates of copper, 
prussiates of potash, and many other salts. And if perfect 
crystallization, and either richness of colour or total free- 
dom from it are to be considered as proofs of the purity and 
excellence of the products, what are shown on the present occa- 
sion must be admitted to be inferior to nothing that has ever 
before been exhibited. ‘The illustrations of chemical manufac- 
tures presented to the student are particularly valuable, not 
only because he can examine them without fatigue or trouble, 
on account of their excellent arrangement, but because he will 
see collected together a variety of substances with which he 
could scarcely have been acquainted except by name. He will 
find also, in several instances, the different phases of important 
manufacturing processes placed before him, so that he can 
trace their progress from their earliest stages to their comple- 
tion. No branches of industry have derived more benefit from 
science than those which depend on chemistry. Not only have 
long-established operations been extended by it, and augmented 
in usefulness through a greater economy of production, but 
altogether new ones have been originated and developed. The 
degree to which the cost of many useful matters has been 
diminished is truly surprising: not to mention acids, and alka- 
line salts, which, in our own time, were so much dearer than at 
present, there are a number of cumpounds, the prices of which 
bear no proportion to what they were at no distant period. 
Thus Prussian blue was originally two guineas a pound; it is 
now less than two shillings. Ultramarine, when made from 
lapis lazuli, was five guineas an ounce; what is just as useful 
may now be had for little more than a shilling a pound. 

We propose to treat, on the present occasicn, of the manu- 
facture of mordants and dyes: but the subject is so extensive 
that we must confine ourselves to a comparatively limited view 


Chemical Manufactures. 109 


of it; and therefore we shall select for consideration only alum 
from the former, and madder, with its products, and the aniline 
colouring matters, from the latter. 

Alum was well known to the ancients; it is mentioned by 
Pliny in his Natural History, but there is reason to believe that 
he did not restrict the word to the sense in which we understand 
it :—in his time sulphate of alumina, combined with more or 
less sulphate of iron, was also termed alum. From avery early 
period alum was used as a mordant, and also to render wood 
and cloth incombustible. It was obtained most abundantly, 
and of the best quality, from Egypt, and its name is probably 
an Heyptian word. Until the fifteenth century it was imported 
from the Hast, and was not made in England until the reign of 
Hhzabeth. Our alum is essentially a double salt, one of its 
constituents being sulphate of alumina, and the other the sul- 
phate of an alkali; and as there are three alkalis there are 
three corresponding alums. These are not, however, the only 
salts to which the name is given; every double salt consti- 
tuted like an alum being considered such. Thus, in an alum, the 
sesquioxide of alumina may have been replaced by the sesqui- 
oxide of some other metal—as that of chromium, for example, 
or of iron; and in this way a great variety of alums may be 
produced ; but each of them contains twenty-four atoms water. 
The alum in which alumina is replaced by oxide of iron, is used 
in Germany and other places as a mordant for logwood, galls, 
sumach, etc. Alum is found native, but almost all of the vast 
quantity which is used in dyeing, and for other industrial pur- 
poses, 1s artificial, bemg produced from alum stone or slate, 
schist or clay. Alum stone contains all the constituents of alum, 
but, in addition, certain impurities, which ‘must be removed ; 
schist contains only the alumina and sulphur; the latter must 
be oxidized, and an alkali must be added; clay requires the 
addition both of sulphur and an alkali. Alum stone is not 
abundant, but it yields alum by a comparatively simple pro- 
cess, and with a facility dependent on the proportions of its 
constituents. To obtain its alum, merely moistening it with 
water would suffice, but this is not the method adopted: in 
practice, sorted pieces of it are calcined, to deprive the free 
alumina present of its water, and thus destroy its affinity for 
the alum, with which it is m union. After which, they are ex- 
posed to the atmosphere, which causes them to fall into powder, 
and the alum is then dissolved out with water. The degree of 
heat to which the stone is raised, during calcination, is a 
matter of great importance ; if this is too high, alum will not 
be formed ; if too low, the result will not fall into powder. 

Alum slate and shale are the most abundant sources of 
alum. Some of the alum shales, on being moistened with 


110 Chemical Manufactures. 


water, heat and fall into powder ; but most of them require to 
be roasted. If the bituminous matter they contain is too little 
for this purpose, small coal, or some other combustible must be 
added. The roasting deprives any pyrites that is present of 
half its sulphur, which passes off, either free or as sulphurous 
acid, sulphuret of iron being formed. This sulphuret, by at- 
tracting oxygen, becomes sulphate, which, as the temperature 
rises, becomes peroxidated, and yields its acid to the alumina. 
If, in roasting the schist, the heat is allowed to become too 
great—and, when the mass is very large, this is very likely to 
be the case—the sulphuret of iron will form a slag with the 
earth, or too much sulphur will pass off, and, in either case, 
waste will occur; the more moderate the heat, within certain 
limits, the more abundant the alum product. After calcination 
the mass is so porous, that the air can circulate freely through 
it; to facilitate this, and also to remove the sulphate of alu- 
mina, water is sprinkled. upon it.. When all the alumina is ob- 
tained in solution as a sulphate, the liquid is concentrated by 
evaporation: and, on adding an alkali, alum precipitates as a 
crystalline powder, which is purified by washing with cold 
water, in which it is nearly insoluble: being then dissolved 
in just enough of water raised to the boiling point, the solution 
is run into casks with moveable staves. When the whole has 
cooled, the staves are taken asunder, and the alum appears to 
be a solid mass: but on making an aperture m it, the mother 
liquor flows out. 

As the supply of shales is confined to certain localities, alum 
is manufactured also from clay. The difference of the process 
employed, in this case, consists in addimg sulphuric acid after 
calcination, and removing the iron—generally as Prussian blue, 
with ferrocyanide of potassium ; the allali is applied in the usual 
way. When ammonia is used as the alkali, it is obtained from 
gas liquor. Ammonia alum has the advantage of precipitat- 
ing from a less concentrated solution. Spence manufactures it 
on a very large scale, his products being, on an average, more 
than three hundred tons per week. He uses the carbonaceous 
shale of the coal-measures: and his process is so effective that 
instead of one ton of alum being made from sixty tons of oolitic 
shale, sixty-five tons of alum are made from fifty tons. He cal- 
cines in the ordinary manner, but with great care; and adds 
sulphuric acid to make up for the deficiency of that produced 
from the pyrites, introducing along with it the ammonia and 
its volatile salts contained in gas liquor, the fixed ammoniacal 
salt being subsequently liberated by lime. The precipitated 
alum powder is dissolved, not by boiling water, but by steam : 
and any basic alum (a subsulphate) subsides from the solution, 
which is crystallized in the usual way. The masses of alum, 


ee et ees 


Chemical Manufactures. 111 


thus formed, weigh about three tons ; one of them (No. 605) is 
exhibited. 

Alum is used in a variety of ways, but chiefly as a mordant, 
on account of the affinity of its alumina for both colouring mat- 
ters and vegetable fibre, between which it forms a bond of 
union. When applied to calico-printing, it is very important 
that it should be free from iron; and the chief use of the alka- 
line sulphate which it contains is to facilitate the separation of 
that metal, by rendering the aluminous compound so much 
more soluble as to allow the sulphate of iron to crystallize first, 
and be removed. When heated, ammonia alum loses first the 
whole of its alkali, and then the sulphuric acid passes off, pure 
alumina being left. The well-known superiority of Roman 
alum consists in its containing a considerable amount of cubic 
alum, which has a larger quantity of base than the octahedral ; 
the extra alumina being held very feebly by the sulphuric acid, 
it is more easily detached as a mordant. 

The use of alum has been im a great degree superseded by 
the employment of sulphate of alumina—incorrectly termed 
“concentrated alum.” It is made from clay, contains but 
little alum, and is quite free from iron, that metal bemg easily 
and completely removed by ferrocyanide of potassium. 

Madder is one of the most important substances used in 


dyeing, whether we consider the beauty, the variety, or the 


permanence of the colours it imparts; and it is specially de- 
serving attention on account of the improvements which have 
been introduced into the mode of applying it. The plant from 
which it is derived is the Rubia tinctorwm of Linneus; and 
there is little doubt that its properties were as well known to 
the ancients as to ourselves. Other plants also, of the same 
genus, have been used for the same purpose. Thus, the R. 
Manista has been employed in India from the earliest times 
for the production of the colour called Turkey red: and in the 
eastern’ parts of Hurope the Rf. Peregrina, or Alizari, has long 
been used to obtam the same tint. Western Hurope was, for 
many centuries, supplied with madder from Holland; but, on 
its being discovered that Dutch madder was incapable of pro- 
ducing all the colours which madder will give, it was imported 
from other places, and particularly from the south of France. 
Madder may be grown in England, but not economically. The 
rubia tinctorum is not an ornamental plant; its stem dies every 
year; but the root, which is the important part, is pe- 
rennial. The Levant madder is the finest we receive; that of 
Avignon is next in quality. Cochineal imparts a richer tint 
than madder, but it is far more expensive. According to the 
- mordants employed, madder produces every shade, from a pink 
to a deep red, and from a lilac to a black; and affords also va- 


112 Chemical Manufactures. 


rieties of orange and brown. It is not used in dyeing silk. 
The splendid colour termed Adrianople or Turkey red, is pro- 
duced with it by a very complicated process, which is practised 
on a large scale in France, and is considered there an industry 
of the highest importance. 

It was formerly supposed that madder contains only a red 
and a tawny colouring matter; but it has been ascertained that 
it includes two reds, termed respectively by their discoverer 
alizarine and purpwrine. It contains other colouring matters 
also, including two that are resinous, with sugar, acids, etc. If 
an acid is added to the brown muddy liquor, which results on 
treating madder with boiling water, a complicated precipitate 
is thrown down. When boiling water will extract no more 
colouring matter from madder, it will give out a large ad- 
ditional quantity if acted on with an acid, then washed, and 
treated with caustic alkali; and a precipitate may be thrown 
down as before by means of an acid. Nothing will then re- 
main but woody fibre. Alizarie, or madder red, is found 
among the substances precipitated by the acid. It is always 
present in the madder of commerce, but is not to be discovered 
_ in the roots when first taken out of the ground. The cells of 
the living plant contain only a transparent yellow juice, which 
becomes red by exposure to the atmosphere, and has been 
termed ubian. It is believed to be identical with the bitter 
principle, and, by means of an acid, to be convertible into dif- 
ferent dyeing substances. If madder is treated with cold 
water, and the liquid is allowed to stand in a warm place, it 
loses its bitterness and yellow tinge, and gelatinizes ; it is then 
capable of producing the most brilliant colours. The whole 
tinctorial effect of madder is not developed until the process of 
dyeing, when the gradual heat first applied causes the required 
fermentation of the rubian. 

If the gelatinized cold solution is treated with alcohol, and 
the alcoholic solution is evaporated, a further heating will sub- 
lime alizarme in long brilliant transparent orange-coloured 
crystals. Alizarime may be obtained also by heating madder 
itself; but the product will be rendered impure by an empy- 
reumatic oil. Although alizarine is of a reddish-yellow colour, 
its compounds are a beautiful purple or violet hue. It is 
precipitated from their solutions by metallic salts, etc., if in 
combination with the fixed alkalies ; but spontaneously by the 
escape of the ammonia, ifin combination with that alkali. Ali- 
zarine is dissolved without change by boiling concentrated sul- 
phuric acid, and is set free from the solution by the addition 
of water. It has a very strong affinity for alumina; but if, in 
dyeing with it, bases are present, they will enter into combina- 
tion with it; if acids, they will combine with the mordants. 


Chemical Manufactures. 115 


Tt affords very readily a brilliant red with alumina, and a black 
or purple with iron ; and very little of it is sufficient to produce 
shades of great intensity. Madder itself, if used for the same 
purpose, would require a tedious and complicated process. 
Purpurine, or madder purple, the other red colourmg 
matter, resembles alizarine, from which it may be separated by 
a boiling solution of alum, and, after cooling, may be thrown 
down by excess of sulphuric or muriatic acid. It produces, 
with mordants, a more fiery red, and a more intense black, 
than alizarine; but the purple it gives has a very disagreeable 
reddish hue, and hence its name has not been well chosen. Its 


colours are not only inferior to those of alizarine, but less per-. 


manent. 

The precipitate thrown down by an acid from infusions of 
madder, contains also rubiacine or madder orange, a yellow 
colouring matter which sublimes in yellow crystals. It may 
be conveniently obtained by digesting washed madder roots 
for sixteen hours in eight parts of water at 60°, and straining 
the liquid, which will then deposit small crystals. When these, 
after having been dried, are dissolved in boiling alcohol, crys- 
tals will separate on cooling, and must be washed with cold 
alcohol. Rubiacine, as also the two resinous colouring matters 
contained in madder, injure the beauty of the dyes obtained 
from it, giving to the red an orange, and to the purple a red 
tinge, and a yellowish hue to those parts of the cloth which 
should be white. | 

It is a curious circumstance that madder, to produce per- 
manent colours, must contain a certain amount of lime, either 
naturally or from its having been added. Hence dilute sul- 
phuric or muriatic acid, injures its dyeing powers, but they 
may be restored. Something, therefore, depends on the soil 
in which the madder is grown, or on the water used in dyeing 
with it ; if these do not supply the required carbonate of lime, 
the effect produced will be imperfect. Lime water neutralizes 
the injurious effects of the pectic acid, rubiacine, and resinous 
matters, in the madder; but excess of it would combine with 
the alizarine. If, in dyeing, only the latter is used, the smallest 
quantity of hme would be mischievous, since it would prevent 
the combination of the dye with the mordants, which are 
weaker bases. 

Many unsuccessful attempts having been made to improve 
the colouring properties of madder, it was at length discovered 
that by acting upon it with strone sulphuric acid, and then 
washing with water, a more powerful and brilliant dye might 
be obtaimed. It is believed that the acid decomposes the 
bitter principle, producing new quantities of colouring matter ; 
and that it liberates colouring matter which was in combination, 


114 Chemical Manufactures. 


by rendering the earthy bases soluble, and therefore capable of 
removal. The subsequent addition of lime neutralizes the re- 
sinous colouring matters and other hurtful substances which 
the acid may have set free. When sulphuric acid is added to 
ground madder, all that is soluble in water can be extracted— 
including a large quantity of sugar, which is used for the ma- 
nufacture of a spirit that pays for the whole process; since, 
though it is not drinkable, it answers well for varnishes. The 
dye stuff obtained in this way is termed garancine ; it gives no 
colour to cold water; but, as it produces its whole dyeing effect 
at once, it is more powerful than the original madder ; it affords 
brighter colours also, and does not stain the white parts of the 
cloth, which greatly simplifies the after-process. But, as the 
colours which it produces are less permanent, and do not so 
effectually, resist soap, etc., it cannot be so well employed for 
pink or purple. When the residue, after dyeing with madder, 
and the exhausted dye-liquor, are acted on with sulphuric acid, 
an inferior garancine, termed garanceuz, is obtained; it will 
not give a good purple. The chief derivatives of madder, may 
be seen among the chemical products in the eastern annex. 

But by far the most interesting manufacture connected with 
dyeing, is that. which has for its object the production of 
colouring matters from coal-tar. ‘The latter was long a re- 
proach, both to the chemist and the economist, neither of whom, 
until within a recent period, applied it to any very useful pur- 
pose. It was generally consumed as fuel, the least profitable 
way in which it could be employed. Very valuable substances 
are however, now obtained from it, and among them aniline, 
which, with its compounds, has a special interest, on account 
of its capabilities as a source of colour, having been discovered 
long since the Exhibition of 1851. It is one of the bases dis- 
covered by Rungé, and was called by him Kyanol, but it has 
since been termed aniline, from the Indian name for one of the 
plants whence indigo, the substance from which it was first 
obtained, is procured. It may be had from.a variety of sources, 
but most abundantly from coal-tar. 

In the method of manufacture that is found most inex- 
pensive and convenient, naphtha is first obtained by distillation 
of the tar; then benzole, by distillation of the naphtha, with 
certain precautions; nitro-benzole, by the addition of nitric 
acid to the benzole; and aniline from the nitro-benzole, by 
means of reducing agents. Two gallons of tar produce about- 
ten grains of aniline. The various stages of this process are 
beautifully illustrated (No. 581) by the Messrs. Perkins, who 
exhibit also a mass of aniline purple, in the solid form, which 
is believed to have required for its production the tar from two 
thousand tons of coal; but it would impart a fine purple to one 


Chemical Manufactures. 115 


hundred miles of calico, the solution required for the purpose 
containing less than a grain of the salt to the gallon. Aniline 
may be obtained also from naphthaline; and thus a substance 
which was so long not only worthless but a cause of consider- 
able inconvenience, may be made the source of a most valuable 
material. The method of obtaining it from benzole was dis- 
covered by Bechamp in 1856. Its most characteristic pro- 
perty is the blue colour which it strikes with the solution of 
bleaching powder, or of any alkaline hypochlorite; and this 
suggested its use as a means of producing colouring materials. 
lt forms crystallizable salts analogous to those of the metals. 

The aniline colouring matters are generally obtained from 
its sulphate, which is formed by the addition of dilute sulphuric 
acid, and, with gentle evaporation, separates as a salt. The 
sulphate of aniline having been dissolved im boiling alcohol, it 
erystallizes in colourless plates, which become red by exposure 
to the air. Mauve dye, or aniline violet, is obtained by preci- 
pitating the sulphate with bichromate of potash, and digesting 
the precipitate with coal-tar naphtha; then dissolving out the 
colouring matter with alcohol, and removing the alcohol by 
distillation. Cotton does not take the aniline colours as well 
as wool or silk; they may, however, be found to answer better 
with Indian cotton, which from some cause, yet unknown, is 
more easily dyed than that from other localities. Among the 
derivatives of aniline is Rosaniline, which is quite white until 
some acid is added. Its acetate, dissolved in water, constitutes 
the magenta dye. Some very splendid and valuable specimens 
of crystallized acetate of rosaniline, in the form of crowns, are 
shown at the Exhibition. There is also an aniline yellow, and 
an aniline blue; but, in general, the shades derived from ani- 
line are those varying from pink to purple. No other dyeing 
material produces more beautiful or more permanent colours. 

The present Exhibition affords abundant proofs of the per- 
fection to which the dyer has brought his. art, with the assist- 
ance of the chemist. That such valuable and beautiful com- 
pounds as the aniline dyes should be produced from so mean a 
substance as coal-tar, presents the most incontestable evidence 
of the aid which chemistry may furnish to the arts—an aid the 
more to be prized when, as in this instance, it consists in uti- 
lizmg materials which may be obtained in abundance, and 
which are otherwise of but little value. 


116 Taste in Art. 


TASTE IN ART. 


A visit to the Great Exhibition at Kensington must have sug- 
gested many interesting questions concerning taste in art, and 
they are not the less important because they are not new. 
The word art expresses one of the most complex ideas that 
civilization has evolved, and a perfect theory of art, like a per- 
fect theory of society, is impossible, because analysis must fail to 
grasp the multiplicity of conditions under which the phenomena 
are produced. It is probable that certain relations between the 
structure of the eye and particular arrangements of form and 
colour, may ultimately enable a physical theory of beauty to be 
constructed, but this would not help us far on our road. Sup- 
pose, for example, that convenience of vision, and the physical 
comfort of the optical apparatus could be shown to be associated 
with certam forms and tints presented simultaneously, or in 
succession, we should still have to consider the more difficult 
relations of mental and moral association, in order that we 
might, out of an indefinite number of unobjectionable arrange- 
ments, bestow an artistic preference upon those which were best 
able to express, or stimulate emotion, and thought of an ideal 
kind. Imagining that we have to deal with an average eye and 
organization, we must condemn a disposition of colour which is 
painful, or wearisome, and we must likewise condemn forms, or 
arrangements of form, that suggest physical discomfort, or 
which are obviously inappropriate. Upon these principles it is 
not difficult to come to a wide and general agreement upon 
many elementary propositions. All people, for example, who 
are not sufferers from colour-blindness, admire sky-blue, and 
they can all be brought to disapprove of an inartistic treatment 
which should give the clear cerulean tint a muddy aspect, by 
the juxtaposition of a hostile hue.. An equal facility for agree- 
ment exists with reference to simple harmonies, or discords of 
colour; but as soon as we approach more complicated problems 
we find that a prolonged education of the eye is necessary to 
enable the act of vision to be properly performed. Ask any 
child the form of objects seen in perspective, and the probability 
is that you will get an incorrect reply, founded not upon a real 
attempt to see, and a genuine explanation of what appears to be 
seen, but based upon wrong notions of the appearance it is sup- 
posed they ought to present. A few experiments with a round 
table, placed edgewise to the observer, and in various slopes, 
will convince any one how completely seemg is an art which has 
to be acquired, and show to how slight an extent the acquisi- 
tion is usually made. If simple objects in easy positions are so 
little understood by children, or even by numbers of grown-up 


Taste wv Art. ng 


people, how much more must defect of vision prevent the ap- 
preciation of the beautiful curves that enter into the human 
form. From outline let us pass to colour, and those who have 
made no trials will be surprised to find how few persons can see 
all the tints of an ordinary landscape or street scene. One 
very noticeable deficiency in uneducated vision is not to see 
violets and purple-greys, and consequently, to be insensible not 
only to many of the chief beauties of natural objects, but also to 
be incapable of appreciating the best efforts of landscape art, 
The uneducated ear is contented with a few ballad cadences, 
not even elaborated into anything that can be called an air; 
the uncultivated eye is equally soon pleased with what is poor 
and bald, but as the uneducated ear is bewildered and pained 
by a strain of Beethoven harmony, the uncultivated eye is an- 
noyed by a masterpiece of Turner, or an exquisite picture of 
Pyne, in which a highly complicated system of colour harmony 
its introduced. 

Art criticisms are so often written by individuals who have 
not learnt to see, that they meet with little respect in this 
country. This is a misfortune, as we want methods of judging, 
and standards of excellence distinct from those which artists 
themselves set up. The tendency of a painter, for example, is 
to overrate technical skill and to underrate the human thought 
which a painting should express. He knows far better than 
the general public how difficult it is to perform certain manipu- 
lations, or imitate special effects. He is also well up in the 
ordinary rules of his craft, and quick at discerning errors or 
faults. On the other hand, he may have very low conceptions 
of the purposes of art. He may be ignorant of history and 
literature, or he may read the best authors with a dull percep- 
tion of their meaning; he may look at scenery without the 
faculty of idealization; the events of life may go on around 
him; empires may crash, human passion, instinct, and rea- 
son may carry on their exciting conflicts, but he may see no- 
thing, feel nothing, to translate into the language of his art. 
This shows that the mental faculty of seeine requires cultiva- 
tion as well as the physical, and if criticism were not for the 
most part a bad penny-a-line sort of business, it would help the 
artist to create and the public to appreciate a nobler kind of 
work than we are accustomed to see. Some artists, like Mr. 
Creswick, establish and maintain a great reputation upon the 
principle of never seeing in nature more than the average of 
uncultivated people can understand ; others, like Mr. Redgrave, 
appear to flourish by seeing a trifle less, for out of the thousands 
who looked upon his “ Way through the Woods,” in the Royal 
Academy exhibition of this year, we cannot imagine many to 
whom a woodland scene would have had so little to say. 

VOL. II.—NO. II. K 


118 Taste in Art. 


In Eckermann’s conversations with Goethe, the following 
passage occurs :—“ Your excellency,” said I, “made an excel- 
lent remark a little while ago, when you said that the Greeks 
turned to nature with their own greatness, and I think that we 
cannot be too deeply penetrated with this maxim.” “ Yes, my 
very good friend,” said Goethe, ‘all depends upon this. One 
must be something in order to do something.” In literature 
we do not forget this, for, excepting the ephemeral popularity 
of the trashy school of fast writers, our praise 1s given to those 
who are more as observers and knowers than ourselves. Artists, 
however, we treat less rationally, and are apt to over-value their 
mere technical skill. Rightly considered, this skill is the acqui- 
sition of a language in which something great and beautiful 
should be said, and he who possesses the language, but tells us 
nothing, is greatly to be condemned. Style in writing, or 
speaking, is something like the technical part of good painting, 
and it often covers deficiencies of thought. One who speaks in 
public with elegance of manner, choice of words, and flowme 
cadences, is sure to gain applause, even if there is nothing m 
what he says; except his audience are in earnest, and then the 
roughest utterance with pomt and pith in it will be preferred. 
This earnestness settles art questions as well as those of rhetoric 
or literature, and it is a maudlin frame of mind that induces 
people to be contented with a painting, or a sculpture, that 
leaves them emotionally and intellectually no wiser than they 
were. before. The artist usually depreciates works in which 
there is a fine thought damaged by bad technical expression, 
and as we have said before, overrates works destitute of 
thought, but good in technicality. In this spirit very culpable 
pictures of Millais have been immensely praised, while his 
noble conception of Sir Isumbras was franticly abused because 
the knight bestrided a great rocking-horse fitter for the nursery 
than the field. The “ Black Brunswicker” of this: artist was 
perfection in satin and boots, but the man was as’unlike a 
Black Brunswicker as could be. In fact he looked a creature 
far more likely to run away than to prove the stern hero deter- 
mined neither to give nor take quarter, but to move on with 
iron determination towards inevitable death. Surely, if art is 
anything more than imitation, it is better to mount a rockine- 
horse with a great idea, than to make a mistake like this. This 
year Mr. Millais refutes the theories on which he used to act. 
He justifies the warmest hopes of those who saw the genius 
lurking under his most hideous efforts, and after the spectator 
had refreshed his memory by looking at the Nuns digging 
their grave at Kensington, and thus seen what could be accom- 
plished by the force of ugliness, he could go to the Royal 
Academy and observe how the same artist could win higher 


Taste in Art. 119 


triumphs in the “ Ransom” and “Trust me,” two noble pic- 
tures, unsurpassed in power, and violating no sound canons of 
taste. 

Among the foreign pictures which the International Hxhi- 
bition has brought before British eyes, probably the grandest 
is that in which M. Gallait depicts the terrible scene of the last 
honours paid to Counts Eomont and Horn. After recognizing 
the merits of the less painful and equally fine picture of He- 
mont’s “ Last Hours,’ Mr. Tom Taylor*—in a work which 
will prove a valuable aid to visitors whose opportunities are 
brief—thus succinctly describes the more terrible delineation 
(page 183.) 

“ Stronger still is the ghastly attractiveness of the next picture, 
where the bodies of Hgmont and Horn, covered by a black velvet 
pall, and surmounted by their severed heads with the death sweat 
still damp on the brow and rigid hair, lie in the chapel of the Recol- 
lets, for the chiefs of the guilds and civic militia of Brussels to 
take a last look at those that should have been their leaders. The 
fact is historical, strange as it may seem. Hither Philip hoped the 
sight would strike terror into the turbulent Low Country burghers, 
or, confident in his Brabanters and Spaniards, wished to show his 
contempt of the popular disaffection. In the figures of the guild- 
masters, M. Gallait has typified the past, in the elderly man, an 
associate of the headless chiefs in plans and pleasures, who, turns 
away, terror-stricken and trembling, from the horrid sight; the 
present, in the stalwart burgher down whose cheeks the tears are 
falling as he looks at the dead, the hopes of his order, the protec- 


' tors of the Protestant, the free-handed and gracious Count of 
Lamoral, the stout captain of Graveling and St. Quentin; the future, 


in the young archer who exchanges a quick, fierce look of defiance 
with the Spaniards who stand near the bodies: the one a rough, 
haughty soldier—the hand of Spain; the other a civilian with 
polished, cruel face and thin white hand that caresses his dagger- 
hilt—the head that guides the hand.” 


This picture is very important in assisting us to arrive at 
a decision of the principles which should guide an artist in 
dealing with the repulsive and the ugly. If M. Gallait had 
invented the scene he would have stood condemned for a 
gross offence against good taste, in forcing the ghastly spec- 
tacle of two guillotined heads upon our view. ‘To be suffi- 
ciently true to the nature of the incidents he could not soften 
down the horrible character of the objects, and thus follow 
Lessing’s direction in “ Laokoon,” ‘that the truth of the re- 
pulsive in nature should be changed into the beauty of art.’ 
Having determined to paint such a subject at all, M. Gallait 
could only introduce the “ beauty of art’? as a relief to the 


* Handbook of Pictures in the International Exhibition. By Tom Taylor. 
Bradbury and Evans, 


120 Taste in Art. 


repulsive facts that would not admit of the transmutation 
which the German critic required. ‘The cold clammy heads in 
all the grim horrors of violent death will haunt us with their 
murderous tale; but the general tone of the picture shows that 
the. mind of the artist lept beyond the scaffold, that he dwelt 
upon the grandeur of patriotic sacrifice, and saw, in a memo- 
rable execution, one of those incentives to heroism through 
which the liberty of his country was achieved. An Hnglish- 
man should read Mottley’s History of the Netherlands, and 
Newman’s Crimes of the House of Hapsburg to understand 
the justification which a Belgian artist would feel in plunging 
into horrors so profound. Weagree with Mr. Taylor in think- 
ing the objections to this picture without reason, but the fact 
that in this case, the painter needs the justification of history, is 
sufficient to show how thoroughly the artist should be imbued 
with Lessing’s maxim that “‘ beauty is the highest law of plastic 
art.” 

There is another important picture open to adverse criti- 
cism upon a widely different ground. It is the “‘ Roman Martyr” 
of Delaroche, which appears to divide the attention of the public 
with the far greater picture of “ Marie-Antoimette going to 
the guillotine.” In the last work, art criticism finds itself dis- 
armed, although the Marie-Antoimette of the painter possesses 
erand attributes which certainly did not belong to the poor 
victim of that volcanic time, when the wrongs of centuries 
fairly boiled over in an excited and outraged land. In discuss- 
ing the “ Roman Martyr,’ we cannot do better than again 
have recourse to Mr. Taylor. It is the representation of “a 
maiden victim of the persecution of Diocletian, whose virgin 
pody, floating in the Tiber, is revealed to those who seek it for 
interment by the aureole miraculously suspended above the 
pale face that looks serenely up to heaven from the green 
water.’ bt is to the aureole that we object, on the ground 
that a physical miracle of this kind is not a legitimate subject 
for pictorial art. The general tone of the picture is real and 
natural; and this bit of supernatural, not conforming with the 
laws of the distribution of hght, is an eyesore that mars the 
scene. It is a pretty legend that supernal powers hung their 
aureole over the dead Christian girl. A line of Tennyson would 
have made its light lve for ever, but the paint brush should 
have been kept away—it is too gross a tool. 

The selection of subjects is as important as their treatment, 
and we cannot excuse an artist im portraying horrors, because 
our disgust is mainly directed against those by whom they were 
committed. We acquit Gallait on the ground we have men- 
tioned, but we condemn Geréme for torturing our eyes with the 
brutalities of the Roman circus. If he had lived at the time 


Taste in Art. 1AM 


when such a picture would have been the protest of reformers 
against the coarse cruelty of imperial savagery, he would have 
had his justification upon moral grounds; but why rake up 
diseusting materials, which time has benevolently buried? 
Better surely to see the beauty of the present, than the ugliness 
of the past. 

In our own country the appreciation of the beautiful in art 
has wonderfully progressed within the last ten years, and al- 
though we should like to see public bodies sufliciently intelligent 
to create a demand for high class works adapted to galleries and 
halls, we rejoice at the domestic character which our best pic- 
tures assume. As a rule our artists endeavour to produce paint- 
ines calculated to adorn a home, and if in this effort the majority 
tend towards conventionality, tameness, and commonplace, occa- 
sionally varied by slap-dash violence, the fault hes more with 
society than with themselves. Few people will take the trouble 
to understand anything that requires study, and the same men- 
tal indolence which prevents thousands from mastering the 
elements of science, condemns them to perpetual childhood in — 
respect to literature and art. 

What direction French popular taste will take as the pro- 
gress of industry enlarges the class of private buyers, may be 
somewhat difficult to tell, but there are evidences of a growing 
fondness for scenes of domestic and humble life. The battle 
pieces which their artists delineate with a skill that no others 
attaim, are not natural results of national demand. Successive 
governments have seen their interest in demoralizing the people 
by an everlasting parade of the circumstances of war. In this 
way they have successfully touched a chord of national weakness, 
which we, who take the victories we are obliged to win, with 
Quaker-like quietness, can scarcely understand ; but pictures 
hke those of Hdouard Frére and Henriette Brown show that our 
neighbours can see and enjoy aspects of life better worth con- 
templating than deeds of arms. As the people grow in intellec- 
tual and social importance their domestic incidents have more 
value in their own eyes; and though we laud the Belgians for 
their historical recollections, we praise the Norwegians still more 
for the thoroughly human ‘and humanizing efforts in which Tide- 
mand’s pencil is engaged. Peasant life as shown in his pictures 
is a great thing in its way. It struggles with poverty, but is 
not ground down. It has its variety of thought and emotion— 
manly individuality, if not much female grace. Above allit has, 
for Englishmen, the attractions of foreign travel. You forget 
all about London, and seem inside the Norwegian hut. The 
pastor may be too tough and stolid to enter much into the grief 
of the receipients of the holy rites which he mechanically ad- 
ministers ; we might like a greater charm of colour, or brilliancy 


122 Taste in Art. 


of light, but Tidemand has successfully carried us with him and 
made us listen to his tale. We have as yet no such painter to 
deal in a spirit of equal earnestness with the phases of our vil- 
lage life. Weare tired of the same children at the same school, 
with the same light streaming through the same casement, and 
falling upon the same deal boards; quite sick of peasant girls 
carrying pitchers, or gleaning, and polished up to the same degree 
of drawing-room correctness; and we want some one who can 
discover that working people are men and women, with hopes, 
fears, loves, hatreds, and aspirations, just like the more fortu- 
nate inhabitants of fashionable clothes. Historical pictures 
will not be much wanted now that society finds its good and 
evil determined, more by a multiplicity of unknown mdividual 
exertions, than by startling events; the classical gods and god- 
desses are used up, we have outgrown angels that look like 
celestial poultry, and would not be sorry if Mr. Frost’s nymphs 
should be bound im perpetual ice. We want realities of to-day 
—not the less real because contemplated in their ideal aspect, 
and if we get them we care not from whence they come— 
whether Mr. Goodall brings us a stately pilgrim from sun- 
burnt Egypt, or Mr. Millais finds his romance in the break- 
fast-room of a country squire. Let our artists, however, pay 
some attention to the meaning of what they are about. It is 
melancholy to find a big canvas by Mr. Ansdell pretending to 
illustrate Lonefellow’s ‘‘ Excelsior.” In that poem he ought 
to have known that the scenery is accessory and quite subsi- 
diary to the moral which the author intended to convey. The 
“banner with the strange device,” the mountain height, the 
struggling youth, and the voice which “ fell like a falling star,” 
are allin keeping in the magic verse, but Mr. Ansdell strives 
to give us a caput mortwwm which does not make us care 
for the defunct traveller, and suggests no memories of Long- 
fellow’s rhyme. Another artist, Mr. Solomon, with far more 
cleverness, tells us in his motto exactly what he is not about. 
To ulustrate the sentiment of the text, “Thou hast turned 
for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast put off my 
sackcloth and girded me with gladness,” he depicts a family 
startled by the return of a member supposed to be no more. 
The mother, instead of ‘‘ dancing” is likely to faint, the sisters, 
instead of being “ girded with gladness,’ are scared out of 
their wits. A still worse offender in misunderstanding words, 
is Mr. Witherby, who takes the last verse of Tennyson’s poem, 
commencing— 


‘“* Break, break, break 
On my cold grey stones, oh sea,”’ 


as the motto of a picture in which certain crags are made un- 
commonly hot in a sunset’s reddening blaze. Our poets supply 


Saas 


ee ee 


as —~— 


Taste in Art. 123 


abundant themes; but unless they can supply the intelligence 
necessary to understand them, every new book they publish 
seems likely to lead the artist astray. 

Our first-class landscape art 1s, on the whole, very good, but 
we have few painters who seem to have any appreciation of the 
variety of nature, and when a particular scene like Tintagel 
Castle is done into oil and water, many times a year, it is 
wearisome to find nobody entering into the spirit of the place, 
or able to discern the magic web of changing colour which, 
under favourable circumstances, the Cornish coast presents. 

In painting we are escaping from the conventional system 
of the last generation. Dirty brown “old masters,” as all 
smoky bits of canvas used to be called, no longer exert a 
despotic sway. Our artists are free to use their five senses, and 
what thinking faculty they possess. Painting is emancipated, 
and we may anticipate its advance. Sculpture is deeply in- 
debted to Mr. Gibson for his tinted Venus, which, whatever 
may be its merits, is a contribution towards liberty im another 
field of art. The tinted statue question is too big to come in 
at the end of an article, but it 1s plain that the discussion which 
Mr. Gibson has provoked must assist in removing a mass of 
mere prejudice and cant. In other departments we want an 
emancipation movement too. Why, for example, should Min- 
ton’s pottery halt between old notions and new? If some skil- 
ful maker of pots and platters in the middle ages did things 
that were ugly, as well as things that were fine, why must we 
suffer a descent of bad taste. It is because we admire Mr. 
Minton’s ware that we care to pot out its defects. We want 
to know why its grotesque should be ugly, when Cellini and 
the medizeval church builders have shown that the grotesque 
and the beautiful may be combined. Why should so much 
technical skill as this justly famous house has brought to bear 
upon its work be sometimes degraded into constructing great 
clumsy vases supported by miserable naked babies, with hydro- 
cephalous heads, and distorted bodies, tied to their burden- 
some task with fetters of silk? We do not want monstrosities 
which require a Geoffroy St. Hilaire to elucidate, but demand 
from artists of all kinds that they shall exhibit to us 
“Beauty” as Akenside depicted her, “the lovely ministress 
of Truth and Good.” 


124 Poisonous Caterpillars. 


POISONOUS CATERPILLARS. 
BY H. NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


Tue caterpillars of several species of Moths, and also of Butter- 
flies are provided with means of defence which are more or less ve- 
nomous; but we seldom hear of fatal consequences arising from 
their venom, though many of the poisonous species are natives 
of Hurope. This season, however, a boy, injured by the noxious 
hairs of the procession caterpillar subsequently died ; and several 
persons in Belgium, have suffered serious illness in consequence 
of eating cherries gathered from trees infested by a caterpillar, 
the name of which is not given in the notice which furnished 
me with the information. Several kinds of our native cater- 
pillars have the defensive power of emitting a fluid which pro- 
duces considerable irritation of the skin; and in others, the 
hairs, when touched, produce an effect somewhat analogous to 
the sting of the nettle. Some children in my neighbourhood, 
attracted by the gay colours of the little caterpillar of the 
Gold-tailed Moth, endeavoured to rear a brood of them, in 
order to obtain fine specimens of the elegant White Moth. 
During the whole time (some weeks) that they were so en- 
gaged, the backs of their hands, and their faces also, were 
covered with red patches, which fortunately gave but little 
pain till rubbed or otherwise irritated. When the caterpillars 
went into the chrysalis stage, the red patches on the hands and 
faces of the young entomologists disappeared ; but on obtainmge 
some more caterpillars of the same kind, they again made their 
appearance. An éxperienced naturalist informs me that he 
once suffered a very sharp feverish attack while rearing a brood 
of these caterpillars; that the skin of the hands and face be- 
came painfully inflamed; that he suffered intense thirst, and 
was confined to his room for several days. ‘The caterpillar of 
our largest and handsomest native butterfly, Papilio Machaon, 
popularly known as the Great Swallow-tail, is furnished with a 
fork-like tentacle on the neck, of a red colour, from which it is 
enabled to emit a strongly-scented fluid which is said to drive 
off its most dangerous enemies, the ichneumon flies ; and when 
coming in contact with the human skin it produces an unpleasant 
though slight irritation. The small larva of Dicranura Vinula has 
a similar excrescence near the head, both points of which are 
furnished with many perforations, like the rose of a waterig- 
pan, through which it can eject to some considerable distance a 
tiny shower of acrid fluid, which, if it fall in the eye, produces 
acute pain, and the effects are sometimes permanently inju- 
rious. 


Poisonous Caterpillars. 125, 


The injuries sustained from contact with the hairs of the 
procession caterpillar are, however, much more serious than 
those resulting from the more slightly venomous character of 
any of our native species; indeed they sometimes prove fatal, 
as before stated. Ags this caterpillar is very remarkable in 
other respects, I propose to give a short account of its general 
characteristics. It is in some years so numerous in many parts 
of France, that its devastations in the orchards, and even 
amone forest trees, assume an alarming character; entire trees 
bemg so completely stripped of their leaves that they inevitably 
perish. In 1732, their ravages in the south-west of France 
were so extensive that the Parliament of Bordeaux issued an 
edict compelling the rustic population to clear the trees of ca- 
terpillars, under pain of severe penalties. There have been 
local enactments of similar character in England, but this is 
not the place to speak of them. 

The Cnethocampa processionea,* or procession caterpillar, 
iS In some seasons but too plentiful in many parts of France, 
as will have been perceived by my previous remarks, but the 
Forest of Bondy, and the Bois de Boulogne, near Paris, are 
mentioned by entomological collectors as places where it is 
found in most seasons. ‘The caterpillar is about one inch and a 
half in length, and is grayish 
black, with tufts of brownish 
gray hairs. The engraving 
below will give a tolerable 
idea of its general appear- 
ance, even without the aid of 
colour. 

The caterpillars of Cnethocampa processionea do not scatter 
almost as soon as they are hatched, as is common with most 
species, each individual seeking its food alone, but the whole 
brood remains together, as in some other gregarious kinds. 
Some of the gregarious caterpillars alluded to live in a large 
web, common to the whole brood; but each procession cater- 
pillar, though living in society with the entire brood, weaves 
itself a more or less separate nest. These nests, generally at- 
tached to the trunks of trees, are made in compartments, but 
have only one general entrance. The mode in which the ca- 
terpillars go out to feed, following each other in a single line, 
is the peculiarity on which their name, procession caterpillar, 
is founded. Towards dusk, or when the sun is not shining 


* This genus was included by Reaumur and his contemporary entomologists in 
the great division, Bombyx, which has been subdivided by more recent naturalists. 
The present distinctive generic title, Cnethocampa, is derived from the Greek 
word, xvnOw, to irritate, and kaumn, a caterpillar. The derivation of the specific 
name is obvious. 


! 


126 Poisonous Caterpillars. 


(says Reaumur, whose observations, in the last century, may 
be said to have laid the foundation of modern entomology), a 
single caterpillar goes out first, and, after some hesitation, ap- 
pears to determine the line of route that is to be followed by 
the colony. He is succeeded by a second—a third then appears, 
and so on, till the whole colony is following the leader in single 
file; the line being sometimes thirty or forty feet long. As 
the food becomes exhausted in the neighbourhood of their 
nest, they select another centre for their foraging excursions, 
and establish another set of nests upon the trunk of some fresh 
tree well suited to their purpose. ‘These nests are slight, but 
the nest, or rather cocoon, which they construct for the purpose 
of retiring to when about to enter the dormant state in which 
the change to the chrysalis, and then to the moth, takes place, 
is much more compact. ‘The cocoons, being placed close to- 
gether, slightly resemble in appearance the cells of humble-bees. 

Hach caterpillar seals up the opening to his cocoon, or cell, 
with his own hair, a portion of which loosens and falls off at 
this period of his existence. ‘These chrysalis-houses are more 
dangerous to touch than the caterpillars themselves, for when 
the external web is broken or removed, the disturbed hairs at 
the opening of each cell are carried about by the slightest 
wind, and whenever they settle on the skin, a kind of irritation 
commences very similar to that caused by the sting of a nettle. 
The boy who recently died from this cause had been climbing 
a high tree in search of a bird’s nest, and no doubt his chest 
had come in direct contact with a set of cocoons of this kind, 
for it was in the hands, face, and chest, especially the latter, 
that the chief seat of irritation, that could not be allayed, had 
established itself. 

These poisonous hairs, however, which are so injurious to 
the human skin, do not appear (in spite of all that has been said 
upon the subject of their being a defence provided against their 
natural enemies) to be injurious to the birds that prey upon 
them, as the bodies of these caterpillars have been found in the 
stomachs of birds that have been shot, without seeming to 
have caused any internal injury, the stomach of the bird re- 
maining in a healthy state. One of the handsomest of our 
Huropean beetles, Calosoma Sycophanta, feeds upon the cater- 
pillars of the pine-species, C. Pityocampa, following them 
among the branches of the pine, where it destroys vast numbers 
of them. 

There are also caterpillars that feed upon them ; these car- 
nivorous caterpillars being termed by the French vers assassins. 
The procession caterpillar does not attempt to escape from his 
unnatural brother, but submits passively to his fate—fascinated, 
perhaps, in some way, like the bird that becomes paralyzed 


Poisonous Caterpillars. 127 


under the fixed gaze of certain snakes; or, like the antelope, 
who remains motionless when the roar of the lion has announced 
his fatal spring.* It need scarcely be added that the cater- 
pillars that prey upon the processionists do not appear to sus- 
tain the slightest inconvenience from the poisonous hairs. But 
I must return to the immediate history of the procession cater- 
pillar himself: he enters the chrysalis state about the middle of 
July, and the moth appears in 
August, when it lives but a few 
days, the female dymg imme- 
diately after the deposition of 
her eggs. ‘The hairs on the 
body of the perfect insect or 
moth are nearly as venomous 
as those of the caterpillar. The 
colour of the moth is gray, 
with brown transverse stripes, which are sometimes indistinct. 
There is another species of this genus, Cnethocampe Pityo- 
campa, which feeds almost exclusively upon the pine. ‘The 
moth is very similar in appearance to C. processionea, being 
only distinguished by having three dark transverse stripes 
on the wings instead of two. Feeding on evergreens, the 
caterpillars of this species do not require and are not dependant 
upon the fresh foliage of the spring and summer. ‘They are 
hatched about the middle of September, and as the cold 
weather approaches before they are full grown, they make a 
tolerably substantial nest in which to pass the winter in a dor- 
mant state. They awake from their hybernating sleep about 
the 51st of March. Sometimes they remain outside the nest 
a whole day or more before they venture forth in search of 
food, which, says Reaumur, “they must be in great want of 
after their six months of fasting’ In fine weather they con- 
gregate on the outside of their winter nest on their return 
from feeding excursions, but bad weather drives them for shel- 
ter to its interior. The web, or silk, of which this nest is com- 
posed, was sent to Reaumur, in order that he might test its 
fitness to supersede the product of the silkworm. Experiments 
were tried, and seemingly with complete success, pretty-look- 
ing articles being woven from it, but they were found to have 
the inconvenient property of completely dissolving in hot water. 
Having attained their full growth, the caterpillars do not, like 
the allied species, form a series of adjoming cocoons, but bury 
themselves in the ground, to undergo separately their trans- 
formation to the chrysalis state. The habit of forming a single 

* Dr. Livingstone, who was seized by a lion, declares that the terrible roar 


which accompanied the spring seemed to deprive him of all sense of pain, though 
his arm was dreadfully torn. 


128 New Process of Vinegar Making. 


line of procession when they go forth in search of food is the 
same in this species as in the other, every sinuosity of route 
taken by the leader being followed by each caterpillar in the 
line, both in going forth and in returning. 

The mass of absurd stories connected with these caterpillars, 
which Reaumur has curiously preserved, in the letters of his 
correspondents, appears now almost incredible. or instance, 
it was asserted, among other things, that they never arrived at 
a winged state, but laid eggs while in the caterpillar state! ! 
Another absurd conviction of the uninstructed observers of 
that day was, that these caterpillars were the offspring of spi- 
ders, this extraordinary idea having arisen im consequence of 
spiders having been found in the nests. It is indeed now a 
well known fact that spiders frequently take possession of the 
deserted nests of the winter procession caterpillar, and this was 
sufficient to give rise to an assertion, which m those days was 
not put to the searching tests which such a statement would 
now have to undergo before being admitted among the facts 
of natural history, but was allowed to pass current, for the 
delight of wonder-mongers, an amiable race not yet entirely 
extinct. This ridiculous theory concerning the maternity of 
the procession caterpillar is to be found categorically stated, at 
considerable length, in the Journal de Verdun, for March 1784, 
page 165. 


NEW PROCESS OF VINEGAR MAKING. 


Tue following important paper, by M. Pasteur,* has recently 
been read before the French Academy, and it will be found to 
present many points of industrial and scientific interest. 

“JT had the honour of bringing before the Academy in the 
month of February, the property possessed by mycoderms, 
especially those of wine and vinegar, of acting as agents for 
conveying the oxygen of the air to a crowd of organic sub- 
stances, and thus lead to their combustion with a rapidity that 
is often surprising. The study of this property of mycoderms 
has led to a new method of manufacturimg vinegar, which 
seems destined to practical application in this branch of in- 
dustry. I sow the mycoderma aceti, or fleur du vinaigre, on the 
surface of a liquid formed of ordinary water containing two 
per cent. of its volume of alcohol, and one per cent. of acetic 
acid resulting from a previous operation. In addition to this, 
I add some ten thousandths of alkaline and earthy phosphates. 
The plant develops itself, and soon covers the entire surface of 


* Comptes Rendus, 7th July, 1862, p. 28. 


New Process of Vinegar Making. 129 


the liquid, not leaving a vacant spot. During this time the 
alcohol is acidified. While the operation is in full progress — 
when, for example, half the original alcohol is transformed into 
acetic acid—alcohol, or wine, or strong beer is added, day by 
day, in small quantities, and the process continued until the 
liquid is found to contain enough vinegar for commercial use. 
While the plant is able to excite acetification we add alcohol ; 
and when its action begins to be exhausted, we leave it to com- 
plete the acetification of the alcohol still remaining in the liquid. 
The plant is then separated from the fluid, and on washing, it 
yields a slighly acid and azotized liquid, capable of ulterior use. 

“The fermenting tub is then put to fresh work. It is indis- 
pensable not to suffer the plant to want alcohol, because in that 
case its oxygen-transporting faculty would exert itself partly 
on the vinegar, which it would transform into water and car- 
bonic acid, and partly on those little understood volatile prin- 
ciples, the loss of which renders the vinegar flat and destitute 
of aroma. Moreover, if the plant is once turned away from 
its vinegar-making action, it will only employ it again with 
diminished energy. Another precaution, not less necessary, is 
not to excite too great a development of the plant, for its activity 
is then exalted without measure, and the acetic acid will be 
partially changed into carbonic acid and water, even while 
alcohol still remains in the hquid. A vessel of one square 
metre (about thirty-nine inches) surface, holding fifty to a hun- 
dred litres (say from ten to twenty gallons), will yield acetic acid 
equal to five or six litres of vinegar a day.” 

M. Pasteur recommends shallow wooden vessels, like the 
coolers used in brewing, to be employed in this process. They 
should be furnished with covers, with two small openings for the 
entrance of air. T'wo tubes of gutta-percha fixed to the bottom 
of the vessel, and pierced laterally with small holes, readily 
permit the introduction of fresh supplies of alcohol without 
disturbing the fungus film that forms on the surface. The 
presence of phosphates is necessary, as they furnish the mineral 
food of the plant, and if phosphate of ammonia be among 
them, the plant takes from its base the nitrogen it requires, so 
that complete acetification can be carried on in liquid contain- 
ing a ten thousandth part of the phosphates of ammonia, potash, 
or magnesia. 

Commenting on the advantages of this method, M. Pasteur 
states that two processes of vinegar making are now employed 
in France. One of these, called the Orleans process, is only 
applicable to wine. Itis carried on in casks ranged horizon- 
tally, containing inferior vin ordinaire, and one-tenth of its 
bulk of vinegar. After about two months each cask begins to 
yield vinegar at the rate of about ten lit*es a week. In the 


130 New Process of Vinegar Making. 


second, or German method, the liquid to be acetified is allowed 
to trickle over shavings of beech wood contained in large 
barrels to which the air has access. This plan is rapid, but 
not applicable to wine, nor to beer in its natural state, and its 
product is of inferior quality, especially when derived from 
alcohols with a bad flavour. The wine-vinegar of Orleans in 
part owes its fine qualities to the presence of aromatic sub- 
stances, which are carried off by the high temperature and the 
strong current of air which are permitted in the German 
method. There is, however, a singular mconvenience in the 
Orleans mode, which gives rise to myriads of the so-called 
vinegar eels.* These little creatures require air in order to 
live, and the film of the vinegar plant tends to deprive them of 
it. M. Pasteur says,—‘ My experiments have shown that aceti- 
fication only takes place at the surface of the liquid in the thin 
film of mycoderma aceti that is incessantly renewed. Sup- 
pose this pellicle well formed, and the work of acetification 
actively proceeding, all the oxygen that arrives at the surface 
of the liquid is employed by the plant, and none is left for the 
eels. The latter finding themselves deprived of the possibility 
of respiration, and guided by one of those marvellous instincts 
of which all animals, in different degrees, offer us such singular 
examples, take refuge on the sides of the casks, where they 
form a thick white crawling mass.” From this position they 
carry on war with the vinegar plants, often getting the upper 
hand, and forcing the latter downwards below the surface of 
the fluid, and thus more or less completely arresting the fer- 
mentation. In M. Pasteur’s process the eels are not admitted, 
and as the acetification takes place at a low temperature, the 
aromatic elements are not destroyed. We believe the “ Fleur du 
Vinaigre,” or ‘‘ Mother of Vinegar,” although not presenting 
the same external appearance, is substantially identical with the 
solid leathery fungus that, under the name of the “ Vinegar 
Plant,” is often used by English families to mduce the acetic 
fermentation in solutions of treacle and sugar. 


* Anguillula aceti. 


Opposition of Mars. 131 


OPPOSITION OF MARS.—DOUBLE STARS.—OCCUL- 
TATIONS.—THE COMET. 


BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, F.R.A.S. 


OPPOSITION OF MARS. 


A PLANET revolving round the sun in an orbit exterior to our 
own, and therefore, by the 8rd law of Kepler, with inferior 
speed, must necessarily be overtaken and passed by us from 
time to time, and these epochs will be attended with remark- 
able changes in the planet’s apparent movements. So long as 
our own motion is such in point of direction and swiftness as 
not to give a false impression of the progress of the exterior 
planet, it will of course be seen to move, as we and all other 
planets really move, from W. to H., according to the order 
of the signs of the zodiac, or, im astronomical language, 
direct ; but as soon as our position and velocity become such 
as to make appearances prevail over realities, our neighbour 
will first seem to slacken his speed, then to stand still, and 
ultimately, while we are in the act of passing him, to move 
backwards, or, astronomically speaking, to retrograde; as we — 
leave him behind his reversed velocity will gradually decrease, 
till he again become stationary, to recover himself as it were, 
and afterwards starts afresh, and proceeds quietly on his own 
way. These phenomena are, of course, the same with those 
which may be noticed when a train passes an ordinary vehicle, 
or a steamer overtakes a sailing vessel. The precise position in 
which our neighbour is passed by us is called his opposition, be- 
cause he is at that time exactly opposite to the Sun, and comes to 
the meridian at midnight; and being then, of course, at his least 
distance from us, this will be the most favourable opportunity 
for the study of his physical peculiarities under an enlarged 
diameter. Such is about to be the case with the planet Mars, 
whom our readers must have been for some time noticing as the 
most conspicuous as well as the most ruddy object in the Hastern 
sky. He becomes stationary on September 2, and from that time 
will rapidly increase in brilliancy as we are coming up to him, 
till, on October 5, we shall pass him by; after which date he will 
fall off in appearance and speed till, on November 7, he reaches 
the end of his retrogradation, becomes stationary, and subse- 
quently proceeds in the ordinary direction till we begin to come 
round a;ter him again, not, however, to overtake him till after two 
years and fifty days. Such is the general principle and aspect 
of these optical changes: but they are not invariable in their 
amount. ‘I'hey would be so, if the planetary orbits were of a 
circular form; but since they are elliptical, and the ellipses have 
no fixed position in space, but are subject to a continual vari- 


132 Opposition of Mars. 


ation in the direction of their longer axes, every succeeding op- 
position will take place under fresh relations, oscillating between 
the most favourable circumstances, when the Harth is in its 
aphelion or furthest from the Sun, and the planet nearest, in its 
perihelion, and the least favourable, in the reverse of these con- 
ditions. With regard to Mars, the difference is very consider- 
able. His orbit is so elliptical, that when furthest he is dis- 
tant from the Sun 158,754,000 miles, when nearest, only 
131,656,000; so that his best opposition, so to speak, brings 
him more than 27,000,000 of miles nearer to us than his worst, 
from the form of his own orbit; while the excentricity of ours 
may increase or diminish this quantity by nearly 3,250,000 
more. His apparent diameter of course varies in a correspond- 
ing proportion from litle more than 13” to upwards of 30” : at 
the coming epoch it willamount to 21°8. The greatest expan- 
sion of disc will, in consequence of the mutual obliquity of the 
two orbits, take place on September 29; but the difference for 
a considerable time will not be material, as it will range above 
20" from September 5 till October 20; at the first of which 
dates there will bea slight phasis or defalcation from the perfect 
circle on the W., as at the latter onthe H. limb. Had the oppo- 
sition taken place between the aphelion of the Harth on July 1, 
and the perihelion of Mars on August 4, it would have been 
still more auspicious, and had those epochs coincided, as they 
nearly did in August 1719, the planet would have assumed 
unwonted magnitude and splendour; but the present is by no 
means an unfavourable opportunity, being little inferior to the 
opposition of 1830, which Beer and Madler found so advanta- 
geous for the delineation of his physical aspect. In another 
respect too it will be suitable for the observers of Hurope, as 
the planet is a little N. of the equator; on some other occa- 
sions it has had such wide 8. declination when we passed it as 
to be fairly visible only in equatorial or southern latitudes : in 
such a position, the most powerful telescope in our northern 
observatories would show it far less satisfactorily than a much 
smaller one upon the coming occasion. Such of our readers as 
are possessed of instruments of moderate capability will there- 
fore prepare themselves for the examination of that fine ruddy 
disc, which, in its appearance of continents, and seas, and 
snowy poles, and atmospheric obscurations, as well as im its 
diurnal rotation and its change of seasons, presents so great 
and interesting a resemblance to our own globe. On these 
points a few remarks will be offered in a future paper. 

P.S. August 15. <A brief interruption last night in our 
wonderfully persistent cloudy veil exhibited the 8S. polar snows 
very distinctly, though of no great extent. There was much 
dark mottling on the disc, but no decided spot. 


Double Stars. 133 


DOUBLE STARS. 


We must now view the jewels in the hand of Bootes, which 
he has been lifting up for so many centuries above the end of 
the Great Bear’s tail. 

A little way nf from 7, Al Kaid or Benetnasch, the last star 
of the tail, lie three small stars in a triangle, 0, v, and « Bodtis, 
of which the two next Al Kaid are nearest together. These 
are t, S, and x«,N. Hach will repay the search. 

31. ¢ Bootis. 37°9. 33°4. 44 and 8. Light yellow and 
dusky white, 1850°6. I thought the comes lilac about the same 
time. Sestini made it azure, 1844°5. This pretty object, 
which Struve thinks has a common proper motion, is rendered 
more interesting by the fact that the Czar’s great telescope at 
Poulkowa, of 142 inches’ aperture, shows that the larger star is 
very closely double, consisting of two equal components, with 
a distance of only about 03 ; so that we probably have a won- 
derful triple system here. Smyth, as might be expected from 
his inferior optical means, could only detect a shght elongation. 
A more beautiful object, however, is its neighbour— 

sau Boos. 2-7. 238-1, ‘52 and 8. Pale white and 
bluish. No satisfactory evidence of movement. 

If we now carry a line from Alioth, « Urs Majoris (the 5th. 
star in succession, beginning with the Pointers), through our old 
friend Mizar (No. 1), and pass it on through the before-mentioned 
triangle forming the hand of Bodtes, when it has reached nearly 
as far again as the distance from Mizar to the hand, it will fall 
upon alittle close group, of which the brightest is— 

33. 44 Bootis. 2°°9. 233°8 (18380°82). 4°1. 236°2 
(1847-45). 5 and6. There has been much difference of opi- 
nion as to the colours. Smyth made them pale white and 
lucid grey, 1842°58; yellow and cerulean blue, 1850°5; pale 
yellow and dusky, 1856, which, he observes, agrees nearly with 
Struve’s subflava and subcceerulea (1832°24). Onthe other hand, 
Sestini called them both orange, 1844°5; Fletcher, white and 
yellow, 1851; Miller, both white, 1853; Dembowski, yellow 
and ruddy orange or olive yellow, 1854, 1855 ; pale yellow and 
pale orange, 1856. I thought them yellow and ruddy or pur- 
plish, 1850-63, with an aperture of 34, inches. I regret to add 
that the almost unbroken veil of cloud which has obscured our 
summer skies, has, up to the present time, precluded me from 
re-examining this, and other similar objects, with my present 
much more powerful telescope. In another respect this is a 
very interesting pair, as there can be no doubt of its binary 
character, though as Smyth remarks, the case of its orbital 
motion is “beset with difficulties.” It was so close in 1781 
that it was recommended by Sir W. Herschel, together with 52 

VOL. I1.—NO. IL. L 


134 Double Stars. 


and 83 Orionis, neither exceeding 2” in distance, as a test for a 
superior instrument; its movement during the present century 
has been such as to indicate, in Struve’s opinion, a sidereal occul- 
tation between 1802 and 1819, when its distance was 1’°5, with 
the smaller star on the other side. The same observer thought 
it was approaching its greatest distance in 1885, when it 
measured 317; but Secchi found it 4°°788, 1859°515. The 
ellipse in which it is moving is probably foreshortened almost 
into a straight lime. Secchi, between 1855 and 1859, thought 
the brightness reversed, so that there may be a variation of 
light, which was also the opmionof Struve and Argelander. 

Retracing our path a little from this object towards the 
hand of Bootes, but keeping somewhat below our guiding line, 
we find a very minute star, which the telescope expands into a 

beautiful pair— 

34. 39 Bootis. 3°°8. 44°°7. 54 and 64. White and lilac. 
Some observers ascribe a bluish, some a ruddy tint, to the small 
star. Struve considered them to be probably moving, but 
Smyth and Secchi doubt this. I thought in 1850 that the dif- 
ference in magnitude was less than that assigned by Smyth im 
1839. Secchi gave them 6 and 6°5 in 1856; 6 and 6:2, 1857: 
perhaps there may be variable light here. 

We now proceed to Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, a 
beautiful little constellation, the principal part of which is well 
marked out by an ellipse of 4 and 6 mag. stars, among which 
is one of 2 mag. (a), lyimg in a line between Arcturus and 6 
Herculis (No. 25). A line drawn from Arcturus through e (No. 
19) and 6 (No. 23) Bodtis, bent a little to the left, will fall upon— 

ao. €Corone. 61. 301°2: 5 and6. Flushed white and 
bluish green. This truly fine pair, notwithstanding its aspect, 
is very satisfactorily shown to be stationary, as far as our pre- 
sent evidence extends. 

Our next object is found by amore complicated process. We 
draw a line from Wega to a Corone : this passes, at about three- 
fifths of the distance, a little above € Herculis, 3 mag., the bright- 
est star in the vicinity. Another line from ¢ Her pulse to € Coronce 
(our last object), at about one-fourth of the distance, falls upon— 

36. v' and v? Corone, a noble 5 mag. pair of yellow stars,rather 
more than 6’ apart, to each of which an aperture of 54 inches 
shows a minute attendant. A low power includes another star of 
about 6 mag., forming a splendid field. A little way (2°) p lies 

87. o Corone. 13. 1076 (1830°76).:,) 27 32., 9, davon 
(1852°25). 6 and 63. Creamy-white and smalt-blue. There 
is much discrepancy about the smaller star. South calls it 

“certainly not blue,” and differing very little from the other, 
1825; Struve, white, 1836°69 ; Dembowski, yellow, ashy, and 
doubtful blue, 1854 to 1857 ; Secchi, sometimes blue, sometimes 


Double Stars. 135 


yellow, 1855 to 1857. I fancied it, with a 5-7, inch object-glass, 
at one time ruddy, at another bluish, from 1850 to 1855, appa- 
rently changing even while being looked at ja versatility of hue 
which I have remarked in other stars similarly circumstanced, 
and which may possibly depend upon unequal sensitiveness to 
colour in different conditions of the retina; during a short 
glimpse with 53 inches, 1862°57, the companion seemed bluish ; 
at the same time I thought, as I had done in former years, that 
there was more than } mag. of difference. Struve gave more 
than 1 —o, Secchi’s discordances are considerable, ranging 
between 3 and 2 mags. from 1855 to 1857; but the honesty of 
that peeclicut observer, im recording every temporary impres- 
sion, must be allowed for. The binary character of this double 
star, sufficiently evident from the foregome data, which indi- 
cated to Smyth a period of not less than 560 years, has been 
further confirmed by its continued movement, Secchi having 
found 2'-478 and 184°:77, 1857°711. The period, however, re- 
mainsa puzzle. Hind has given 737 years ; Hyre Powell, 240 ; 
Jacob, 195. “ This is certainly,” as the Admiral remarks in 
professional language, “more yawing than might have been 
looked for; and we might still add Madler’s 608, and Klink- 
erfues’ 420 years. This beautiful pair is converted into a triple 
group by the addition, in a far-reaching perspective, of a blue 
11 mag. star, called 15 or 20 mag.* by South im 1825, and not 
perceptible to him with a power of more than 92 upon 9 inches 
of aperture, so that it may possibly be variable. The increase 
of its distance from 44” in 1839, to upwards of 49”, according 
to Seechi and Madler, in 1855, gives ocular proof of the proper 
motion of the other two, while its fixed position serves instead 
of a micrometer, to make their rotation sensible. In 1839 
the angle between the directions of the two smaller stars was 
about 56°; a glance at their present position will show that it 
rather exceeds 90°. In this very interesting and unusual in- 
stance, angular progress is rendered distinctly perceptible to 
amateurs unprovided with the means of measurement, and much 
more satisfactorily so than by mere comparative estimates from 
the direction of motion through the field. 

38. 9 Corone. 08. 572 (1832°63). 075. 24678 
(1852-43). White and golden-yellow. The period is stated by 
Smyth at about 44 years. Yvon Villarceau prefers 67, but 
Winnecke finds the observations best represented by 43. What 
a glorious idea is given to every thoughtful mind of the power 
of the Creator, and of the infinite variety of his creation, by 
this rapid revolution of these two maenificent suns! The object 


* It must however be borne in mind that this observer calls the attendant of 
Aldebaran 20 mag., which Smyth rates 12, and which Dawes has seen with only 


2% inches of aperture. 


136 Double Stars. 


is perhaps somewhat difficult for a list like the present, but since 
it may now be seen elongated with a good 34 inch object-glass, 
and is beautifully divided with my 53 inches, it seems better 
not to omit so celebrated a test. Sir W. Herschel considered 
it, in 1781, as the most difficult but one of all his double stars ; 
in 1832 Smyth could see a black division, but nothing more 
than an elongation, never even notched, from 1839 to 1852. 
Secchi could only doubtfully divide it with the splendid Roman 
achromatic in 1855 ; im 1859 this was my own case with a power 
of 460; but in 1860, when Dawes measured it at 0’°87, I suc- 
ceeded in dividing it, and it is still widening, as I found it, on 
June 3 last, well separated with 275. There is little difficulty 
in finding it. A line from a Corone (see No. 35) to 6 Bodtis (No. 
23), passes first through 6 Coronew, 4 mag., and then, a little 
further on, falls upon 7. The beginner will find it an excel- 
lent method to prepare the focus of the telescope by adjusting 
it as carefully as possible previously upon some of the closer 
pairs in the neighbourhood, as given in the foregomg list. 

We now return to Hercules, where a line from a through 6 (No. 
25) carried more than as far again, points out 7, 3 mag., the 
brightest of its vicinity, remarkable for its very fine deep yellow 
hue ; immediately 7, are two 4 mag. stars, the furthest of which, 
in a line towards Wega, is . 

39. p Herculis. 37. 308°9. 4 and 53. Bluish-white 
and pale emerald. This beautiful pair seems to be only optical. 
Smyth found it within the range of two inches of aperture. 

»X Herculis, a single 4 mag. star, a little nf 6, is worth 
looking at for its colour, a deep, dull orange, with my old 375 
inches, but which I now see somewhat like that of Antares, 
yellow encompassed by a scarlet glare. It is towards this part 
of the heavens, according to Sir W. Herschel and Argelander, 


that our Sun, with his whole attendant system, is being carried 


by ‘‘ proper motion” through space. 

AQ. 95 Hereulis, 61. 261°8. 54 and 6. Light apple- 
green and cherry-red: a beautiful and curious instance of dif- 
ference in colour between stars of very nearly equal magnitude. 
Secchi thinks the red the larger, the green the brighter of the 
two. Notwithstanding the complementary character of the 
tints, which might be thought to infer a connection, no motion 
has yet been detected. To find this charming object, we must 
have recourse to a fresh pointer, Al Tair, the lucida of the con- 
stellation Aquila, which we shall at once recognize as the 
brightest star in the S.H. heavens, standing just H. of the left- 
hand branch of the galaxy, between two 3 mag. attendants 
ynpand 6 sf. Aline from 6 Herculis to Al Tair will pass, at a 
little more than one-fourth of its leneth, through a group of 5th 
mag. stars, of which the nearest to 6 is our object. 


Double Stars. 137 


If we look s from a Ophiuchi, a little ff, we shall come upon 
8 Ophiuchi, 3 mag., the brightest of its neighbourhood, lying 
from a as far again as the distance between the ‘ two heads.” 
B has y, 4 mae., a little way s f, and ¥ is followed by a vertical 
line of three small stars, with a fourth nearly following the cen- 
tral one, but somewhat tothe s. The central one of these three 
is— 

Al. 67 Ophiuchi. 54°7. 148°6. 4 and 8. Straw colour 
and purple. Wide, but a pleasing contrast in size and colour, 
in a fine field of minute stars. 

The fourth star, nearly following the central one, is— 

42. 70 Ophiuchi (often designated “p’’?). 5°43. 186°4 
(1830-76). 68. 119°7 (1847°48). 44 and 7. Topaz yellow and 
purplish. ‘This is one of the most celebrated binary systems, 
and great trouble has been taken with it by many of the first 
observers. Midler fancied its movements could not be reconciled 
with the law of gravity. Struve found that his Dorpat tele- 
scope gave smaller measures than his former ones, or than those 
of Sir J. Herschel, South, and Dawes. Jacob, after paying 
much attention to this object, is still dissatisfied, and suspects 
disturbance from a third invisible companion. Secchi, again, 
refers such discrepancies to errors of observation. In fact, 
where the quantities to be ascertained are so extremely minute, 
it is evident that there must be unavoidable differences 
arising not only from the imperfection of instruments, but from 
the diversity of eyes and judgments. The latter source of disa- 
greement, known among astronomers by the term “ personal 
equation,” has a wide range of influence, and has been made 
the subject of considerable inquiry ; since with the same micro- 
meter some astronomers are known to measure distances very 
differently from others; and the judgment of the same eye 
seems hable to change; and all this requires to be allowed for 
in comparisons. But in such hair-splitting processes the gene- 
ral agreement which will be found to obtain between really 
good observers is much more remarkable than their occasional 
discordance. In the present instance there can be no question 
as to the existence or the shortness of the period; but it has 
been variously given between 112 years (Jacob) and 74 years 
(Encke). Smyth and SirJ. Herschel prefer about 80 years. 
Secchi’s later measures, 1860°638, gave 6-022 and 105°46. The 
distance is, undoubtedly, again on the decrease. This pair 
acquires an extraordinary interest from the recent determination 
of its parallax—0"-169—by Kruger, Argelander’s assistant at 
Bonn. ‘This, of course, though he considers its limits of error 
to be only 0°-0103 plus or minus, is open to revision by other 
instruments; but adopting it as a basis till disproved, it will 
give us a distance which light could only traverse in 19} years, 


138 Double Stars. 


and a mass of the larger star equal to 22 times that of our Sun. 
Well may we gaze upon such an object with astonishment and 
reverence !* : 

43. 0% Ophiuchi. 1" 351° +2 (1834-48). 1-2. 15°5 (1853°25). 
4 and 6.. Yellowish-white and smalt-blue. This fine pair is un- 
questionably in orbital motion with a period, according to Hind, 
of about 96 years. Secchi’s three measures give, at a mean, for 
1857°5, 1"°35 and 20°1. I divided it with an aperture of 37% 
inches and a power of 250 in 1856. It may be found by a line 
from a Herculis to the np star of the two called Yed (see No. 
15) at about two-thirds of the distance, and should be looked 
for soon, before it gets near the horizon. 

We proceed to a grand object— 

44, @ and @ Serpentis. 216. 103879. 43 and 5. Pale 
yellow and golden-yellow. This is a superb pair, and one of 
the finest in its class, and it lies in a glorious field. The mag- 
nitude of @' has been very differently rated, and it should be 
watched, as pretty certainly variable ; for which its vicmity to 
6° affords an unusually favourable opportunity. A line from 70 
Ophiucht to Al Tair will pass somewhat above this object, 
nearly in mid-distance. It lies in the vacant space between 
the two streams of the Galaxy, and not on the western edge of 
the eastern stream, where globes and maps usually, if not 
always, place it. This traditional misrepresentation of a very 
obvious and well-marked feature must have had its origin and 
continuance in that idle spirit of unhesitating copying to save 
trouble, which has been the cause of so much evil in many 
branches of research, but is especially inexcusable in such an 
instance as this. In many questions of history and archeology, 
reference to original documents may be very inconvenient, per- 
haps impracticable ; -but here nothing could have been more 
easy than that verification which no one seems to have thought 
it worth while to make. 

A still more brilliant double star is— 

45. a’ and a Capricorni.. 6’ 18°°4. 2914.3 and 4. Pale 
yellow and yellow; each with a faint attendant, that of a? (the 
larger star) being at some distance. There is a 5th most mi- 
nute star 5” from a’, so delicate as to have been caught only 
once by Smyth in “ lhttle evanescent flashes,” with an aperture 
of o9inches. Sir J. Herschel has thought that it may pos- 


* There seems to be some peculiarity, hitherto quite unexplained, about the 
light of this star. The rings which, under a high magnifying power, surround the 
spurious discs of stars, are commonly accounted for as the result of the “ inter- 
ference of light,” on which supposition they would be an invariable phenomenon. 
Yet Sir J. Herschel says “the rings of this star seem to have something peculiar. 
They are thin, and extend farther than in general?” and in another place, 
“difficult, owing to the rings and appendages. N.B.—I always find this star 
difficult from the above cause.” 


; 


NR a a a ee 


Double Stars. 139 


sibly shine by reflected hight; but the discovery of planetary 
systems in the starry heavens, though perhaps just waiting, as 
it were, at the door, has not yet broken upon us. No relative 
motion has hitherto been perceived in this grand object, which is 
double even to the naked eye, the finest of the few thus visible in 
the whole heavens. The components are, in fact, one-fifth of the 
Moon’s diameter asunder, though they appear much closer ;— 
an instance of the little dependance to be placed upon eye- 
estimates of distance when the objects compared are of dissimi- 
lar kinds. This leader of Capricornus is easily found, being the 
uppermost of two 3 mag. stars not far apart, and in a line slop- 
ing downwards a little to the left, coming to the meridian after 
Al Tair, but much lower in the sky, not higher than the 
February Sun, about 9h. p.m., during the second week in 
September. 


OCCULTATIONS. 


The following may be observed durmg the month :—Sep- 
tember 2nd, 4 Sagittarii, 5 mag. immerges ab 6h. 33m., 
emerges at 7h. 48m ; 3rd, o Sagittari, 4 mag., is occulted from 
Sh. 28h. to 9m. 41m.; w Sagittari, 3 mag., from 11h. 46m.-to 
12h. 5m. ; 5th, 9 Aquarii, 6 mag., from 10h. 9m. to 10h. 27m. ; 
8th, 16 Piscium, 6 mag., from 9h. 59m. to 11h. llm.; 30th, 
28 Sagittaru, 6 mae., from 6h. 45m. to 7h. 38m.; 30 Sagittarii, 
6 mag., from 9h. 18m. to 9h. 38m.; 31 Sagittari, 6 mag., 
from 9h. 42m. to 10h. 38m. 


THE COMET. 


This beautiful and tolerably conspicuous visitant, the second - 
of the current year (whence in astronomical language it will be 
called Comet II. 1862), was discovered at Florence by MM. 
Pacinotho and Toussaint, July 22; after which date it gradually 
increased in visibility during its approach to both the Harth and 
Sun; its perihelion passage occurring on August 23, and its 
perigee, or closest proximity to the Harth, seven days later, its 
distance from us being then 324 millions of miles, about one- 
third that of our distance fromthe Sun. Its subsequent course 
declines rapidly southwards through the N. part of Bodtes, 
Corona Borealis, and Serpens, crossing the equator on Septem- 
ber 5th, to disappear shortly afterwards beneath the W.S.W. 
horizon. It will therefore have already diminished before these 
pages can reach our readers, and they must lose no opportunity 
of studying its aspect, which at the present time (August 22) 
presents some interesting features, though nothing comparable 
to the fuller development of Donatis Comet, or the great one 
of July 1861; as far, however, as the “ sector’ adjacent to 


i40 Hydraulic Illusions. 


the nucleus is concerned, there is much resemblance to the 
comet of last year. The tail, which arises irregularly from only 
a part of the breadth of the coma, is short, as yet, im propor- 
tion to the brightness of the head. At present, no conclusion 
can be safely formed as to the period of this comet, whose orbit 
is said to have a slight resemblance to that of the year 770. 
Detailed observations, which have hitherto been but few, from 
the pertinaciously adverse condition of the sky, will be given in 
a future number. 


HYDRAULIC ILLUSIONS. 
BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 


Toss visitors to the metropolis who accept Dr. Johnson’s invita- 
tion, and take a walk down Fleet Street, may have noticed the 
small crowd of wondering gazers usually assembled around a 
shop window a few doors west of Temple Bar. The object of 
attraction being, not the exterior of the earthenware filters 
vended by the occupant, but a series of hydraulic contrivances 
and designs, the most attractive of which is a perpendicular glass 
tube, some six feet in length, up which is seen passing in endless 
and regular succession a series of bubbles of air, as unsubstan- 
tial and as interminable as the line of shadowy kings that passed 
before Macbeth. 

The mechanism by which this exceedingly effective and 
pretty contrivance is produced is entirely concealed ; and as the 
occupant of the warehouse astutely declines to afford any infor- 
mation on the subject, the matter has remained for several years 
one of the unsolved enigmas of the town. 

That the means adopted to produce the result are not gene- 
rally known is evident from the fact, that the design has not 
been imitated, which, from its attractive character, would have 
been the case had the means by which it is effected been 
understood. 

Scientific knowledge is La, however,the exclusive property of 
any one individual ; and as Mr. Lipscomb has had for a very long 
period the benefit of this attractive advertisement, we have no 


hesitation in laying bare the concealed mystery, at the same 


time giving him every credit for the knowledge displayed and 
the ingenuity manifested in the contrivance. 

The ascent of these bubbles is obviously produced by means 
of an apparatus known to chemists under the name of an aspi- 
rator, from its being employed to draw a current of air or gas 
through any tubes or vessels along which it may be required 
to flow. 


ew 


ae 


Hydraulic Illusions. 141 


Tf our readers will look at the apparatus, in the Strand they 
may observe that the glass 
tube a, up which these ae: 
bubbles ascend im appa- 
rently such a mysterious 
manner, is perfectly free 
and unattached below ; this 
want of communication with 
any other portion of the 
apparatus rendering the 
action less easily compre- 
hended. If, however, they 
look to the upper part of 
the glass tube they will find 
that itis enclosed in a metal 
tube B, and that from this 
a smaller tube c ascends to 
and passes along the ceiling 
of the shop. No other por- 
tion of apparatus is visible, 
and it is the extreme simpli- 
city of the arrangement and 
the apparent want of any 
adequate cause that renders 
the whole so incomprehen- 
sible and attractive. 

If we wish to understand 
how the effect is produced, 
we must imagine that the 
small tube ©, after passing along the ceiling to a convenient 
locality, is made to descend and enter into a perfectly air-tight 
cistern D. ‘This is furnished with an aperture u, for the pur- 
pose of filling it when required. The aperture is capable of being 
closed by a screw with a leather washer, that enables the open- 
ing to be shut in a perfectly air-tight manner. From the cistern 
descends along tube F, having a stopcock at its lower extre- 
mity. No particular proportions are requisite except one which 
is absolutely indispensable, that is, that the length of the column 
of water in the cistern D and tube F should be greater than 
that in the glass tube a; and should this be filled with syrup or 
any liquid heavier than water, the difference must be propor- 
tionately greater. 

Having described the apparatus, let us now explain its 
action. We willsuppose the glass tube a, which is alone pre- 
sented to the gaze of the public, to be filled with liquid. Water 
would answer, but as the object is to cause a slow ascent of the 
globes of air, a thicker liquid, such as clear syrup, would be pre- 


142 Hydraulic Illusions. 


ferable. Whatever may be the liquid employed it is prevented 
flowing out of the small aperture in the bottom of the tube by 
a valve opening upwards. ‘his valve is contamed in and con- 
cealed by the small metal cap placed on the lower end of the 
glass tube. 

The cistern pis filled with water through the aperture 5, 
which is then closed. On opening the small stopcock at the 
bottom of the tube F, the water will flow out, owing to the 
greater pressure in the longer tube Fr than in the shorter tube a. 
In order to supply the vacancy created in the cistern, the exter- 


2a 
—— 


- cee 7 


TUNA atta my 


nal air will enter by the opening at the bottom of the glass 
tube and ascend in a regular series of bubbles through the 
liquid it contains. ‘This action will continue as long as any 
water remains in the cistern, and may be renewed by replen- 
ishing it from time to time as may be requisite or desirable. 

Such is the simple apparatus that has puzzled the wits of 
some thousands of spectators during a period of several years, 
and has tended to give greater notoriety and reputation to the 
warehouse in which it is placed than many more elaborate con- 
trivances would have done. ‘ 

The aspirator, as the contrivance is termed on which the 
action of this deception depends, has long been known to 


Gleanings from the International Hahibition. 143 


operative chemists, who not unfreqnently desire to draw a cur- 
rent of air or gas through a tube. For this purpose, however, a 
far superior instrument has been for some time in use in France ; 
and as it appears to be quite unknown in this country, we have 
much pleasure in describing its structure and mode of action ; 
its great advantage being that it is capable of being continued 
im operation during a very great length of time with the same 
supply of water. It consists of two reservous placed one above 
the other, and which are capable of being turned easily on the 
horizontal axis B F, which supports them. In the position 
shown in the figure the air is drawn in or aspired through the 
flexible tube ending at B, and is conveyed above the level of 
the water at c, into the upper vessel, replacing that which falls 
ito the lower reservoir by the canal p p. ‘The air in the lower 
vessel escapes by the tube £ r as the water enters. 

When all the liquid has fallen out of the upper reservoir 
itis evident that the action of the instrument ceases; but it 
is capable of beimg immediately renewed by simply turning 
the two reservoirs so as to bring the one filled with water 
uppermost, when, as they are constructed in a manner precisely 
identical, the liquid will again flow, and the aspiration of air 
proceed until the water has again flowed into the lower vessel, 
which may be then returned to its origina! position, and so on, 
the action continued indefinitely. 

The engraving is taken from Jamin’s Cours de Physique 
de PHcole Polytechnique a work which, we may remark, in 
passing, is far superior to any class text-book of physics in our 
own language, and which ought to have been translated long 
since. In this cut the aspirator is represented as drawing air 
through two U tubes filled with pumice saturated with sulphuric 
acid, the object being to determine the amount of hydrometric 
moisture it contains. 


GLEANINGS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 


Microscopic Diamonp Weritine.—Within the last few days Mr. 
Webb has placed his apparatus for executing microscopic writing on 
glass amongst the philosophical instruments in the northern gallery. 
The imstrument may be described as along perpendicular rod or 
lever carrying at its lower end a pencil, which is traced over the 
original writing that is to be reproduced in miniature. The short arm 
of this lever is concealed in a box above, and acts upon a second lever, 
the arrangement being repeated until the motion, which originates 
with the hand below, is reproduced in the required degree of mi- 
nuteness. 

The extremity of the lever moving through this small space, 


144. Gleanings from the International Exhibition. 


carries a diamond point, which is pressed against a thin plate of 
glass, producing by its action a micrograph of the design over which 
the long arm of the lever is traced below. The apparatus is a modi- 
fication on that originally designed by Mr. Peters, and produces 
effects which have not hitherto been obtained. As examples of its 
power of executing fine writing, it may be stated that the entire of 
the Lord’s Prayer may be easily written in a space of the one 2500th 
of an inch, and the entire of the first chapter of St. John, containing 
51 verses and 4137 letters have been written in less than the one 
thousandth of an inch, a degree of minuteness which would enable 
the whole Bible to be written in the space of two square inches. 
Notwithstanding their excessive minuteness, the letters are easily 
legible under a high magnifying power, each line being perfectly 
distinct. The instrument is equally applicable to the engraving of 
linear designs. Amongst those that have been engraved, and which 
are exhibited by Mr. Webb, may be mentioned a long geometrical 
spiral in the one 2000th of an inch, and a comic illustration of a joke 
of Captain Marryat’s which can be covered by the point of a pin. 
The true value of the instrument, however, is shown in its appli- 
cation to the purposes of microscopic science; it is capable of pro- 


ducing Nobert’s microscopic tests in bands of lines numbering — 


100,000 to the inch, and micrometers with divisions rising to the 
one 4000th of an inch, which, when crossed, produce perfectly dis- 
tinct and sharp angled squares, each of one-sixteenth millionth of 
an inch in size (4000 X 4000 = 16,000,000). 

As our notice may be the means of sending many to look at 
these astonishing results, it may save some trouble by stating, that 
haying been introduced during the last few days, the micrograph 
will not be found in the catalogue, but its locality is readily ascer- 
tained as it is placed against one of the pillars of the northern gal- 
lery, on the railing overlooking the court below. 


Awatysis OF New Mrinerats 1n THE Exuipition: Dysopire.—In 
the Museum of Practical Geology, in Jermyn Street, will be found 
a large mineral mass labelled somewhat in the following style :— 
“Combustible matter from the banks of the river Mersey, north side 
of Tasmania.” Specimens of the same substance are also to be seen 
in the Tasmanian Court of the International Exhibition, and it seems 
certain that this “combustible matter” is nearly identical with a 
rare mineral described as DysopILE in Chapman’s Mineralogy. It pre- 
sents the appearance of a brownish-grey slate rather than that of 
any kind of fuel; yet it burns freely, though with a very offensive 
smell, when held ina flame. It has been employed in the locality 
of its occurrence instead of coal. 

Examined with a magnifying lens of low power, the combustible 
constituent of dysodile is seen to be disseminated pretty uniformly 
through the mineral in the form of small flattened drops of a pale 
brownish-yellow colour, and marked with a few ridges radiating from 
the centre of each disc. When a piece of dysodile is crushed in a 
mortar, and the fragments warmed with strong hydrochloric acid, 
these discs float in the liquid and may be easily separated. They 
are nearly, if not quite insoluble in ether, alcohol and benzol, thus 


a ee ee 


Gleanings from the International Exhibition. 145 


differing from solid paraffine; they require a high temperature to 
melt them; and have been found on analysis to contain, in addition 
to carbon and hydrogen, a small percentage of oxygen. 

Dysodile, in its native state, can scarcely be termed a ‘‘com- 
bustible matter.” By far the largest part of it is morganic and 
incombustible, as the following analysis shows :-— 


Combustible matter . : ; : 36°51 
Water, etc. . ; : SA decry 2°30 

Mineral matter or ash containing silica 
alumina, iron, soda, etc.. . i P oilishy 
100-00 


Aspertits.—Under this name a beautiful, most lustrous, and 
intensely black substance is exhibited in the New Brunswick Court. 
Albertite presents the general appearance of a very excellent cannel- 
coal, and breaks with an extremely brilliant conchoidal vitreous 
fracture. Its jet black powder, when heated in an open vessel, 
melts, and then gives off great quantities of combustible vapours, 
leaving a light and bulky coke. But there is one point to be ob- 
served here of great interest—this coke is pure carbon, there being, 
in fact, practically speaking, no ash in Albertite, as the following 
result proves :— , 


1:55 grammes of Albertite left ‘001 or 1 milligramme of ash. 


This is equal to no more than ‘0645 per cent., while we believe that 
no cannel-coal or anthracite hitherto analysed contains so little as 
1:0 per cent. Among its volatile constituents Albertite contains 
mere traces of sulphur and nitrogen. 

Together with the Albertite itself, specimens of oil produced by 
its destructive distillation in close vessels are also exhibited. They 
are admirably adapted for burning in paraffine lamps, affording a 
good light, having little or no disagreeable odour, and not forming, 
under any circumstances, an explosive vapour. In fact, a sample of 
the oul, when submitted to fractional distillation, did not commence 
to boil until the thermometer had risen to 338° Fahr., or 126° above 
the boiling point of water ; while only half the oil had came over at 
482° Fahr., one-seventh remaining in the retort when it had been 
raised to the boiling point of mercury. 

The discovery of large sources of native mineral oil has caused 
the manufacture of Albertite oil to be discontinued. ‘This is a cir- 
cumstance to be regretted, as we are convinced that it far surpasses 
in its illuminating power, freedom from smell, and perfect safety in 
use, any hydrocarbon oil that has come under our notice. 

We may mention, that the analysis of these two singular minerals 
has been made by Mr. A. Church, who is continuing the investigation 
of their composition and general properties. 


FRoc 1n Brock or Coar..—lIn the open court adjoming the eastern 
annex, is a tall block of coal from Russell’s new Black Vein, in 
which has been excavated a square opening, wherein is placed a. 
glass jar containing a living frog. The statement is not definitely 


146 Notes and Memoranda. 


made, but it is allowed to be inferred that the frog was discovered 
in the coal when the latter was excavated. 

The accounts of living frogs being found enclosed in trees or 
blocks of recent formation are never found to bear the test of scien- 
tific scrutiny ; the occurrence of a living animal of the most recent 
creation in a formation of such a degree of antiquity as the coal 
measures, is perfectly impossible. The animal should be turned 
over to some travelling show-van, containing mermaids and sea- 
serpents, its being shown in the International Exhibition is calculated 
to render the management of the scientific department the object of 
ridicule to all intelligent foreigners—in the name of the scientific 
men of this country we strongly protest against the continued 
exhibition of this ridiculous absurdity. 


NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 


TEMPERATURE OF Svarts.—M. J. B. Schnetzler has been experimenting on 
the temperature of the terrestrial mollusks, and has arrived at some interesting 
results, which are recorded in the Bulletin Scientifique. We began with the 
Helix pomatia, the large pale fawn-coloured snail, not uncommon in our lanes 
and woods, and which is considered fine eating by epicures abroad. In April, 
1861, when the air temperature was 12°.1 Cent., a snail of this kind was a little 
warmer, 12°.5. In June, when the air was 23°.7, the thermometer, when covered 
with the snail’s foot rose to 24°.7. A few days later, when the thermometer stood 
at 18°.7, it rose on being introduced into the snail shell, and brought as near the 
respiratory cavity as possible, to 20°. Irritating the muscles of the animal gave a 
further rise of .75°. In July a lively Helix pomatia, by mere contact of its foot, 
raised the thermometer 23 centigrade degrees.* Half an hour later, the air rose 
one degree, but the snail remained the same. In September, after some snails had 
closed their shells for a month, a shower of rain came, and although they were 
kept in a room, they woke up, but their temperature did not exceed that of the 
surrounding air. In January he placed two snails in the open air, having removed 
their operculum. During the night the temperature fell to —2° Cent., but they 
were not injured; on a subsequent night, at —8°, they froze and died. Slugs 
have a lower temperature than snails. M. Schnetzler proposes to call these crea- 
tures ‘animals of variable temperature,” in contradistinction to mammals and 
birds whose temperature is usually more equal, if we except the changes which 
hybernating mammalia undergo. Mollusks may become colder than the air, by 
evaporation from their skin, and Dutrochet found that frogs became noticeably 
warmer in air saturated with aqueous vapour, and, consequently, suspending their 


evaporation. 

Crranine Enaravines.—Dr. Hayes, of Massachussetts, in the Scientific Ame- 
rican, recommends old dirty engravings first to have any pencil marks removed 
with india-rubber or bread crumbs, then to have every spot saturated with solution 
of oxalic acid in the proportion of one ounce to a quarter of a pintof warm water. 
A few hours afterwards the engravings may be placed in a tub or foot-bath, being 
allowed to rest upon a piece of open cotton stuff, such as ladies used to employ for 
stiff petticoats before the return of hoops. This material, of suitable dimensions, 
should have two rods or sticks sewn to opposite edges. These sticks will hang 
over the sides of the vessel, and permit the prints to be withdrawn or moved with- 
out any risk of injury, and they should remain in soak with warm or cold water 
for twelve or twenty-four hours. When the prints no longer discolour the water 
on being agitated, the fluid should be withdrawn, and enough clean water added to 
cover them. Halfa pound of chloride of lime should be made into a paste with 


* A degree of Fahrenheit is equal to five-ninths of a degree of the Centigrade scale. 


“a 


Notes and Memoranda. 147 


cold water, and stirred up with two quarts of water, and allowed to settle for six 
hours. Part of the clear solution should be added to the bath till the smell of 
chlorine is perceived, and the prints should be moved to facilitate the action. In 
very bad cases, one ounce of muriatic acid mixed with a pint of water may be added, 
and when the bleaching is effected, the prints should be well washed with fresh 
water and slowly dried. 


M. Frovurens on Wounbds oF THE BRain.—The Comptes Rendus contains 
an account of experiments and observations by this distinguished surgeon, show- 
ing that wounds of the brain are easily cured. He cites several instances of human 
beings who have recovered from injuries involving loss of a portion of their brains, 
and adverts to his own proceedings in introducing leaden bails into the brains of 
rabbits and dogs. He made ahole im the skull with a trepan, cut through the 
dura mater, and made & slight incision into the brain itself, in which he placed 
_ the ball, which gradually sank into the cerebral substance, making a kind of fis- 
tula that cicatrized. If the ball was not too big, the whole thickness of the cere- 
brum or cerebellum might be traversed without being accompanied or followed by 
any bad symptom or disturbance of functions. He states that, in 1822, he removed 
one lobe from the brain of various animals, who recovered perfectly, and only lost 
the sight of the opposite side ; and he adds, “‘ but the most remarkable thing was 
when I removed the whole cerebrum, or both lobes. The animal deprived of his 
brain survived more than a year, but he had lost all his senses and intelligence, 
and was reduced to an automaton.” In another instance he took away all the 
cerebellum, and this creature lived a year. It never regained regularity of move- 
ments. Itwas reduced to the condition of a drunken man. 


MARRIAGES OF ConsaNGuINITY.—M. A. Sanson disputes the proposition that 
these connexions tend to deteriorate offspring, and he adduces many facts rela- 
tive to breeding horses and other animals in England in support of his view. 
This paper has been referred to the commission appointed by the French Aca- 
demy to “ consider the effects of consanguineous marriages.” 


REFRACTION OF lopinzr Varour.—M. F. P. Leroux states that when he 
employed a prism filled with the vapour of iodine, and “successively illuminated 
the slit of his collimator by the red and the violet-blue resulting from the disper- 
sion of a pencil of solar rays by a flint-glass prism, he saw the red and the blue 
images in different places . . . which shows that the refrangibility of the red 
ray is greater than that of the blue ray in vapour of iodine.” 


EXPERIMENTS IN SoLuBinity.—M. Girardin has ascertained that when a 
substance has several solvents, its solubility in a mixture of them is less than the 
mean ofits solubility im each; thus if two saturated solutions in different liquids 
are mixed together a precipitation is the result. 


THe New Asrrrorm.—The 78rd planetoid, which Mr. Tuttle discovered in 
April, has been named Clytie by the American astronomers, after the daughter of 
Oceanis and Tethys. 


Comet 1, 1862.—M. Radau states, in Cosmos, that this comet has so little 
light that it is not easily seen, and could not be detected on 15th July, in Vienna, 
when the moon was shining. He says: “The parabola which this comet describes 
does not resemble any cometary obrit we are acquainted with. It appeared sud- 
denly, being at first visible to the naked eye, and moved rapidly towards the 
North Pole—circumstances which recal the behaviour of the great comet of last 
year.” He then proceeds to show the great difference between the two, that of last 
year making its sudden appearance in the northern hemisphere only. Its orbit had, 
moreover, a very great inclination, while that of the present comet is very small. 
From the middle of June to the beginning of August, this comet moved in a 
direction opposite to the earth’s motion, passing above us at the short distance of 
4,000,000 of leagues on the 4th of July. It has traversed the plane of the 
ecliptic very near our orbit, but keeping before us. Taking for the basis of his 
calculations the elements computed by M. Sceling, M. Radau finds that it inter- 
sected the plane of our orbit on the 3rd of June, at 8h. 26m. mean Paris time ; its 


ere being then 700,000 leagues, and less than 300,000 on the 5th of that 
month. 


148 Notes and Memoranda. 


On THE RigipiTy OF THE EHartu.—Professor Wm. Thompson shows that 
nnless the earth were composed of very rigid materials, it would yield under thetide- 
generating forces exerted by the sun and moon, to such an extent as would sensibly 
diminish the actual phenomena of tides and of precession and mutation. The upper 
crust of the earth is possibly, on the whole, as rigid as glass, more probably less 
than more; but as a whole the earth must be far more rigid than glass, and pro- 
bably more so than steel. Hence the interior must on the whole be more rigid, 
probably many times more rigid, than the upper crust. This calculation con- 
firms the views of Mr. Hopkins, and is quite inconsistent with the hypothesis that 
the earth is a mass of melted matter enclosed in a thin solid shell. Mr. Hopkins 
has shown that this crust cannot be less than 800 miles thick. Professor Thomp- 
son considers that no thickness less than 2000 or 2500 miles would enable it to 
resist the tide-generating force of the sun and moon so as to leave the phenomena 
as they are actually found.—Proc. Royal Soc. No. 50. 


DisTRIBUTION OF NERVES.—In a paper communicated to the Royal Society 
Mr. Lionel Beale states: ‘The nerves distributed to the voluntary muscles of 
the frog do not terminate in free ends, but there is reason for believing that 
complete nervous circuits exist. In all cases, the fibres resulting from the divi- 
sion of the ordinary nerve fibres are so fine that many cannot be seen with a less 
magnifying power than 1000 diameters, and there is evidence of the existence of 
fibres which could only be demonstrated by employing a much higher magnifying 
power. It is by these very fine fibres alone, and their nuclei, that the tissues are 
influenced. The ordinary nerve fibres are only the cords which connect this 
extensive peripheral system.’’ The author finds the same arrangement in the 
nerves of man and the higher mammals, and also in the inyertebrata. He 
employs a highly refractive fluid, such as syrup or glycerine, in these investiga- 
tions.—Proc. Royal Soc. No. 50. 


MECHANISM OF THE Human Voice.—By means of the laryngoscope, Mr. 
John Bishop has succeeded in watching the movements of the larynx during the 
utterance of vocal sounds. When the lower tones are made, the vocal cords vibrate 
through their whole length. As the pitch rises, the vibrating length diminishes, 
and the cords are pressed more closely together. In falsetto notes, it is only the 
extreme end of the cord that vibrates. Moreover, the vocal chords form a kind 
of valve, which is situated in a tube, and acts like a reed. Thus the organs of the 
voice perform the double office of reed and string.—Proc. Royal Soc. No. 50. 


Mr. LAssELL AND THE Moon.—At Malta, where Mr. Lassell has erected his 
magnificent 4-feet reflector, he observes the details of the moon with a sharpness 
and distinctness which he had never seen before. He states that, if a carpet 
the size of Lincoln’s Inn Fields were laid upon its surface, he could tell whether 
it was round or square. He adds, in a letter to the President of the Royal 
Society, “‘ I see nothing more than a repetition of the same volcanic texture—the 
same cold, crude, silent, and desolate character which smaller telescopes usually 
exhibit.’ 


THe Formation oF Hatos.—Sir John Herschel has devised an elegant 
mode of illustrating the action of minute refracting spheres. He mounts the 
spores of the common puff-ball in a film of oil between two pieces of glass. When 
these are held close to the eye, and a candle viewed through them, beautiful 
concentric halos appear. 


Optica ExpERIMENT.—Mr. Slack calls attention to concentric circles of 
light, exquisitely marked by fine black intersecting lines, which may be seen by 
taking a stout glass tube, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and six or 
eight inches long, holding it horizontally opposite the flame of a candle, and 
looking at the light through it. A piece of paper rolled round the tube shuts 
out all unnecessary illumination, and makes the phenomena more clear. 


SSP 


eS RCI 
; SS 


i" 


P H.Gosse.del. 


Tornopteris onisciformis. 


THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 


OCTOBER, 1862. 


A SUMMER AFTERNOON BY THE SEA. 
THE TOMOPTERIS. 
BY PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S. 


Durine the summer months a naturalist on any part of the 
coast may have many opportunities of obtaining some of the 
rarer marine animals, and among them not a few of highly 
curious structure, or otherwise possessed of great interest, by 
collecting at the surface of the calm sea. Influences, which we 
can at present only conjecturally estimate, or which are alto- 
gether inappreciable to us, bring, at certain times and in certain 
conditions, perhaps electrical, of the sea or of the air above it, 
many forms of delicate animal life from the recesses in which 
they ordinarily conceal themselves to that stratum of the water 
which is in close proximity to the atmosphere. On a quiet day, 
when the surface has a glittermg mirror-like smoothness, when 
the sun is shining, but a hazy veil slightly mitigates the fierce- 
ness of his heat, in the afternoon hours, if the observer will 
take a boat and pull gently about under the headlands, and 
into the tiny bays and inlets that are separated from each other 
by points of black rock, from which long draperies of wrack 
and oarweed and tangle hang down in the sleeping water, he 
may take many a curious form which, under a lens or on the 
stage of his microscope, will afford him both entertainment and 
instruction. The eye is not of much service in this mode of 
collecting ; many of the desiderata are of minute or even micro- 
scopic dimensions, and most of the others are so transparent 
and colourless, that even when culled from the teeming bosom 
of the waters, and inclosed in a clear glass vase, they can be 
discerned by the eye only fitfully and with difficulty. A bae 
of fine mushn stretched on a hoop of wire fastened to the end 
of a staff some five feet long, is the best appliance for secur- 
ing the prey. There should also be in the boat a large glass 
vessel—a confectioner’s cylinder is very suitable—and two or 
three phials, such as those in which chemists keep sulphate of 
quinine. If the collector add a couple of glass tubes, respect- 
VOL. II.—NO. III. M 


150 A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 


ively an eighth and a quarter of an inch in diameter, he will 
be set up. 

As the boat is gently paddled along, making as little dis- 
turbance with the oars as possible, the operator standing in the 
bow, for the purpose of taking the water before the surface is 
broken, holds the bag so that the hoop shall cut the surface. 
After a few minutes he removes it from the water, and, turning 
it inside out within the large vase, allows the collected prey to 
float off into the vessel. Then raising this on his left hand to 
the level of his eye, he peers through the clear fluid, seekme 
to catch some movement other than that of the currents, or 
some flash of light from areflecting body. The transparency of 
the water will most likely be dimmed, and his power of exa- 
mination impeded, by a multitude of delicate filmy objects 
which he will in an instant see to be organic, but which, if he is 
a tyro, he will have difficulty m making out. These are the 
sloughs of Barnacles (Balani), the active creatures that inhabit 
strong conical fortresses of stone studding the rocks, and that 
ever thrust out and draw in a hand of many slender fingers, 
flexible-jointed, and fringed with an exquisite array of bristles. 
From time to time, the skin of this many-fingered hand is 
thrown off; and, as 1t remains entire, and every bristle is per- 
fectly represented in the exwvie, it is a very interesting object 
to examine, and to mount ona microscopic slide. These sloughs 
float by millions, and the collector having once satisfied his 
curiosity about them, will probably wish them somewhat less 
numerous or somewhat less obtrusive. However, he will soon 
learn to neglect them, and pursue his investigation in spite of 
their presence. 

Perchance he detects a tiny bell of pure translucency, with 
a little clapper depending from its arch, and a series of strings 
of excessive tenacity attached to its margin. Jt shoots to and. 
fro so rapidly, that he can scarcely keep it im sight; at length 
it takes an instant’s respite, and he brings his dipping tube to 
bear on it, thus:—Before he inserts it, he claps his fore-finger 
tightly on the upper end, then plunging the other end into the 
vessel he brings it pretty close to the little bell he wishes to 
capture ; then, for the briefest possible moment, he lifts his 
finger, the water rushes in at the lower end, carrying the prey 
with it ; the finger is tightly clapped on again, and the contents 
of the tube are safely transferred to one of the smaller phials, 
isolated in pure water, and ready to be examined at leisure. 
He has caught one of the lovely little Naked-eyed Meduse, a 
creature of exquisite grace and beauty. 

I have some reason to think that in the darkness of the night 
more of such beautiful forms of life sport at the surface of the 
sea than even during the most auspicious day. ‘The towing-net 


A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 151 


which, in the smooth seas of the tropics, the naturalist-voyager 
rigs out over the quarter of the ship, and leaves to gather what 
it may, rarely fails to yield to the morning’s examination, as the 
result of the night’s collection, a variety of creatures which are 
rarely or never seen by day. And I have occasionally been 
amply rewarded by taking my muslin bag-net down to the sea- 
side at nine or ten o’clock at night, and dipping at random as 
I stood on the lowest step of the quay stairs, or on some pro- 
jecting rock, while the water flashed with bright phosphoric 
radiance at every movement. 

Occasionally too, by carefully searching over the tiny basins 
in the rocks left full by the retired tide,—those most fascinating 
little pools which are fringed all round with floating filmy leaves 
of green or crimson, and tiny flexible shrubs with purple 
branches as fine as hair,—we may succeed in taking a prize. 
Jt was thus that a scientific friend a day or two ago obtained a 
very rare and otherwise interesting animal, which he kindly put 
into my hands.* 

It was Tomopteris onisciformis. ‘Ten years ago, when I was 
spending a summer at Ilfracombe, I met with it, m the way 
I have described above, dipping it with a muslin net from the 
open sea. Believing it to be new, I described and figured it 
under the name of Johnstonella Catharina.t 

In this supposition [ was mistaken; and soon afterwards 
Dr. John Edward Gray, of the British Museum, gave the fol- 
lowmg information concerning the animal, in a note in the 
Annals and Magq. of Nat. Hist. for August, 1853 :— 

“Tt appears to belong to the same genus as the animal de- 
scribed by Hschscholtz in the Isis (1825), p. 736, t. 5, f. 5, 
under the name of Tomopteris onisciformis, from the South Seas ; 
and by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, in the Voyage of the Astro- 
labe, u. p. 284, t. 21, f. 21, 24, under the name of Briarea 
scolopendra, from the coast of Spain. Hermannsen has pro- 
posed to change the latter name to Briarea; Harry Goodsir 
calls it Briareus ; and Mr. R. Ball writes it Bryarea.t Hsch- 
scholtz, and Quoy and Gaimard regard it as a mollusk; the 
first referrig it to the order Heteropoda, and the latter to the 
Nudibranchiata. 

“ Mr. Harry Goodsir, who found the animal abundant in 
the North Sea (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1845, xvi. 163), 
observing the presence of ‘ cilia fringing the bifurcated poste- 


* T call it rare, because through ten years’ habitual searching of the sea on 
our south and south-west coasts, I have met with it soseldom. Dr. Carpenter 
however, finds it not uncommon on the western shores of Scotland. 

+ Devonshire Coast, p. 356, pl. xxv. 

{ Probably in ignorance of the allusion, which was to Briareus, the hundred 
handed giant of the old Greek theogony. Ifthe name had been retainable, Mr. 
Goodsir’s orthography would have been the more correct one—Bpidpews. 


152 A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 


riors of the lateral extremity of its body,’ decided that it could 
not bea mollusk. 

“ Menke (Zeitsch. fiir Malac. 1844, 21) proposes to remove 
the genus to the Annelides; more recent authors have con- 
sidered it as a Crustacean. 

“Mr. Gosse at first sight thought it might be a Brachiopod 
crustacean, but thinks it has more affinity to the Annelides 
(p. 348), and refers it to that class in the Systematic Index. 

“ According to Eschscholtz, and Quoy and Gaimard, the 
South Sea specimens are very much smaller than those found in 
the Mediterranean ; thus, Tomopteris onisciformis and T'. Scolo- 
pendra are most probably distinct species. Mr. Gosse’s John- 
stonella Catharina is, no doubt, a synonym of the latter, since 
Mr. R. Ball records that Bryarea scolopendra has been taken 
in Dublin Bay by Dr. Corrigan.” (Proc. Brit. Assoc. 1849, 

5 eh) 

: In addition I should state that Dr. Adolph Edouard Grube, 
in his excellent work Die Familien der Anneliden (Berlin, 
1851), has included the genus, without question, among the 
Annelida ; constituting a family and an order of it alone, which, 
with the curious caterpillar-like Peripatus, of the West Indies, 
of which he makes another order, he intercalates between the 
Terebellacea, and the Lumbricina. Dr. Grube includes but one 
species im the genus, quoting Quoy and Gaimard’s Briareus 
scolopendra as a synonym of Hschscholtz’s T. omseciformis. 

The following is Grube’s account of the family, with its 
technical characters :—* 


“ ANNELIDA. 


“ORD. Gymnocopa. Fam. Tomopteridea. 


“Body lengthened or worm-shaped, slender, with broad 
floats, often small or not well developed towards the hinder 
end. Segments not very numerous, not separated by bounding 
furrows. 

“* Head-lappets united behind with the mouth-segment ; the 
former with short antenne, the latter (hinder) with very long 
tentacular cirri, im which, as in the antenne, a bristle-hke part 
is set. ‘Two eyes. 

“ Mouth directed downwards, unarmed, proboscis not ob- 
served. 

“‘ Lateral processes of the segments forming considerable 
floats, two-lapped, without bristles or needles. 

“We know as yet but one genus, Tomopteris, with a single 
species, of which the external and internal structure has been 
thoroughly investigated by Busch. The body is amazingly 


* Op. cit. p. 95. 


| 
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A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 153 


transparent; the alimentary canal straight, without enlarge- 
ments, vessels not perceptible ; the blood colourless; the sexes 
separate ; the eggs lie freein the abdominal cavity. The nature 
of certain rosette-shaped organs, found within at the base of the 
floats, Busch could not ascertain. The nervous cord in lying 
specimens is difficult to detect, but in animals preserved in spirits 
I found its halves laid close side by side, scarcely forming gan- 
glionice swellings, and the mouth ring narrow. 

“ Gunus Tomopteris, Esch.—T. onisciformis, Eschsch. Isis, 
1825, p. 736, tab. v. fig. 5. Busch, Miill. Arch. 1847, p. 180, 
tab. vu. fig. 5. Grube, Idem, 1848, p. 456, tab. xvi. figs. J—13. 
Briareus scolopendra, Quoy et Gaim. Ann. des Sci. Nat. x. p. 
235, tab. vu. fig. 1.” 

As the creature under notice is not only one of great rarity, 
but also of more than usual elegance, | have thought that a 
fioure drawn from the present specimen, and a description of 
its principal features, might prove not uninteresting to that 
large portion of the readers of the InrELLEcTUAL OBSERVER who 
are at this season rifling the treasures of the sea among the 
secluded coves and smiling tide-pools of our rocky shores. 

Fig. 1 in Frontispiece represents a male Tomopteris ontsci- 
jormis when first taken, magnified six times ; its natural dimen- 
sions during the vigour of health extending to about an inch and 
a half in length. Strange to say, it rapidly deteriorated in con- 
finement ; though transferred within an hour of its capture to a 
tumbler full of sea-water, it steadily diminished till, im the 
course of about four hours, it was not more than three-quarters 
of an inch long; and this, not by a contraction in length only, 
but by an uniform diminution of all its parts, so that the same 
form and proportions were maintained, but on a constantly les- 
sening scale. Nor was this the only alteration perceptible ; 
when my friend, a gentleman of science accustomed to accurate 
observation, captured it, the animal was so perfectly diapha- 
nous that, when searching the pool, with his eye brought as 
close as possible to the surface, he caught sight of it only by 
the flashings and twinklings of light reflected from the rapidly- 
moving fins of its side-processes; and when he caught it by 
placing his hollowed hands, basin-wise, under the twinkling 
spot, and lifting out the water, he could see nothing of it either 
in his hands or in the bottle into which he poured the contents. 
So thoroughly was it transparent, and so exactly was the re- 
frangibility of its body-tissues that of the circumambient water, 
that when he put the cork into the phial, and examined it, he 
actually could not discern the creature, and supposed that he 
had either failed to capture it, or else had lost it m pouring the 
water from his hands. Yet when, an hour afterwards, he 
brought it to me, the animal was distinctly visible, and could 


154 A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 


not be lost sight of, though still brilliantly transparent. And 
in the course of the three or four hours occupied m my obser- 
vations, it became less and less hyaline, increasing in opacity 
as it decreased in size; till at length, when I put it into spirit 
for preservation, some five hours after capture, it was quite 
opaquely white, and scarcely above half an inch in length. 

The body is slender, flattened, tapering to an attenuated 
tail of great length; much larger relatively in this individual 
than in my Ilfracombe specimens, the tail occupyme nearly 
two-fifths of the entire length.* The lateral processes give an 
appearance of flatness to the body, greater than it really pos- 
sesses; for when viewed sidewise, the trunk, independent of 
the fins, is about as deepasit is broad. ‘The body is furnished 
with fifteen pairs of these lateral imbs (a a), which are mani- 
festly analogous to the foot-processes in a Nereis or Syllis, but 
show no traces of the pencils of bristles so characteristic of the 
ordinary Annelida. Hach foot divides at its tip into two thin 
expansions of delicate sarcode (transparent fleshy tissue), each 
of which assumes somewhat of a fan-shape, and is capable of 
being convoluted into an obliquely truncate cone. J! could 
discern no appearance of external cilia. A transverse section 
of the foot-base would have an elliptical outline, whose longest 
diameter is vertical.+ 

These terminal expansions are used as fins, being waved 
in the water with great sprightliess and activity. They 
thus constitute a powerful locomotive apparatus, and may be 
instructively compared with the leaf-shaped swimming-fins 
attached to the upper surface of the feet in Phyllodoce. 

The head is remarkable for its accessory organs.{ These 


* When this paper was written, I was not aware that the Tomopteris had 
been the subject of two valuable memoirs by Drs. Carpenter and Claparede, pub- 
lished in the Linnean Transactions for 1859 and 1860. Myr. Slack having 
very kindly sent me an abstract of the latter, 1 add in notes some particulars 
of structure which escaped my own observation. 

These eminent naturalists find that the animal passes through a larval stage, 
which differs materially from the adult.condition. They figure a larva, only ‘04 
inch in length, in which the tail is altogether wanting ; there are but three pairs 
of fins, the antennz, or first pair of head processes, are much larger than in later 
Wye: and the cirri, or second pair, show only a commenced development. 

+ Each of these processes, after the first five pairs, is furnished with two pairs 
of natalie rosette-shaped organs, one pair placed near the base of the fin, the 
other on the terminal lobe-like expansions. The former are described as the ex- 
ternal orifices of ciliated canals, which presently unite into one that runs along for 
some distance in the wall of the body, and then terminates in the body-cavity. 
These canals appear to admit the external sea-water to percolate into the cavity, 
which is then replenished with the products of digestion by exudation through 
the walls of the alimentary canal, and becomes a blood-like nutritive fluid. 

~ MM. Carpenter and Claparede describe on the dorsal surface of the head 
“a pair of ciliated epaulettes, which extend over the edges of the bilobed nervous 
ganglion. These, at a certain stage of development, are fringed with long ole, 
both at their margin and at their base.” 


A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 155 


are two pairs, of which the anterior (b) may be considered an- 
tenne, and the posterior (c) tentacular cirri; but these distinc- 
tions are perhaps somewhat arbitrary, and are rather convenient 
than precise. The antennee (fig. 3) consist of a marginal por- 
tion, thick and cord-lke, of granular tissue, of which the an- 
terior is thicker than the posterior edge, and a thin clear 
membrsnous portion stretched across. The latter seems double, 
and to inclose a cavity filled with fluid ; for I observed eddies 
of minute corpuscles, which were accelerated whenever they 
approached the cord-like margins. 

The second pair, or cirri (c), have a similar structure, but 
the front cord is prolonged into a stiff straight seta of a length 
superior to that of the body and tail, which points obliquely 
backward, and is capable of but a very shght change of direction, 
by a contraction of the hinder part of its base. ‘This pair is 
probably the seat of a delicate sense of touch. 

Immediately between the bases of the cirri are seated the 
two eyes (d); each consisting of a distinct lens,* very convex, 
seated on a much larger mass of black pigment, and looking 
outward laterally, and the whole eye inclosed in, or resting on, 
a globose body of translucent tissue, probably a nervous gan- 
ghon, which is in contact with its fellow (see fig. 2). I did 
not remark any movement in the eyes. 

Viewed from beneath, the cavity of the mouth is seen to 
open just under the eyes (e), the aperture bemg formed by an 
irregular corrugation of the surroundmg flesh, forming lobes. 
In one of my Ilfracombe specimens, I was so fortunate as to 
see the protrusion of a thick cesophageal proboscis to some dis- 
tance, of an ob-conic form, or somewhat trumpet-like, with a 
large four-sided orifice obliquely terminal. This observation 
was the more important, as such a protrusile cesophagus is em1- 
nently characteristic of the Annelida, and does not seem to 
have been seen in this animal by any other observer. In my 
recent specimen, the cesophagus (f), when withdrawn, reached 
to the second pair of fins, where, after a constriction, 1b ex- 
panded into an alimentary canal (g), having distinct corrugated 
walls, whose outline was commensurate with that of the body 
cavity, with a slight tendency to enter mto the bases of each 
pair of fins. The cardiac extremity of this viscus, during my 
examination, was insensibly pushed forward, so as to inclose 
the termination of the cesophagus, but not changing the position 
or the appearance of the latter. It was manifestly empty.t 

* MM. Carpenter and Claparede state (and quote the testimony of MM. 
Leuckhart and Pagenstecker to the same point), that the lens in each eye is double. 
It, however, appeared to me manifestly single. 

+ The alimentary canal m one specimen obtained by MM. Carpenter and 


Claparede contained fragments of a Beroe, which were kept in active motion by 
their own cilia. 


156 A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 


The alimentary canal appeared to have a cloacal orifice, 
which, however, I did not distinctly define, between the fif- 
teenth pair of fins (h), where I consider the tail to commence. 
This portion of the animal is nearly of the same diameter 
throughout, composed of nine segments, of which the bounding 
furrows are distinguishable, notwithstanding what Grube says 
to the contrary. The segments of the trunk, on the other hand, 
are only to be inferred. Hach segment-furrow bears a pair of 
lateral processes. Of these, the earlier ones are not to be dis- 
tinguished from the body-fins, which have been degenerating 
from about the middle pair backwards, except by still further 
degeneration; but as they approach the posterior extremity, 
they become more and more rudimentary, and can scarcely be 
discerned on the last one or two segments. The tail is perfo- 
rated throughout by a viscus, which in most parts appeared 
simple, though with corrugated walls, but near the base was 
very manifestly composed of two cord-lke portions, irregularly 
twisted together—a strange and unaccountable structure. The 
viscus inclosed at intervals two large oval air-bubbles, the effect 
of which, though accidental and unimportant, on the appear- 
ance of the animal, from the different refrangibility of the air, 
was very striking. More structurally interesting was the evi- 
dence of a circulatory fluid, surrounding and bathing both this 
viscus in the tail and the alimentary canal in the trunk; for at 
intervals there were seen groups of blood-corpuscles whirled to 
and fro and circling in irregular eddies, revealing the fact that 
the body-cayity is lined with a ciliated membrane. ‘This fluid 
evidently bathed the whole interior of the body, and surrounded 
the alimentary canal, without the slightest trace of a dorsal vessel. 

The walls of the body showed a texture composed of longi- 
tudinal fibres, very distinct. 

Withm the caudal cavity there was a series of organs of 
whose nature I am doubtful. At the pots where the degene- 
rated fin-processes originate on each side, there was a gland(?) 
shaped like a kidney-bean (i, and fig. 4), composed of pale 
brown granular matter, attached to the imner wall by a short 
stalk arising from the concavity, Just as a bean is attached at 
the hilum. The texture and appearance of these bodies had so 
much resemblance to those of maturing ova (as in the Rotifera), 
that I should have concluded such to have been their solution, 
but for their isolated manner of attachment, and the absence of 
any viscus that I could identify with an ovary.* 

* These glands are considered by MM. Carpenter and Claparede to be the 
testes ; the form is probably inconstant, as they figure them of a very different 
shape. They found them filled with spermatozoa, which were furnished with twe 
whip-like tails—‘ a common structure in the antherozoids of alg@, but rare, if not 


unique, among spermatozoa of animals.” ‘ 
The ova in the female are lodged in the general cavity of the body and tail. 


ss 


A Summer Afternoon by the Sea. 157 


Though to the unassisted eye the whole animal appeared to 
be destitute of colour, with the exception of the black eye- 
specks which are just discernible—the microscope shows that 
the skin is studded with minute scarlet dots, arranged somewhat 
sparsely in linear rows on the median line of the back, along 
the cirri, and irregularly scattered or grouped on the sides, 
fin-processes, and tail. 

A few hours’ captivity sufficed to deprive this delicate or- 
ganism, before so agile and so vigorous, of motion and of life. 
It is strange that many of the low forms of animal life which 
swim freely in the open sea, are so excessively impatient of 
confinement, as to exhaust themselves even in what seems to be 
an ample supply of pure water. Many a tiny creature less than an 
inch in length, caught as it frolics im its abounding vivacity at 
the surface of the wide ocean, and transferred, without contact 
with anything firmer than its own pure element, to a bucket 
full of water, dies of utter exhaustion in a few hours. How 
and why is this? It cannot be that the oxygen has been all 
taken up in so brief a time. It is as if a man shut up beneath 
the dome of St. Paul’s should be found dead by daylight for 
want of air to breathe. Are the gills of an Anneloid or a 
Mollusk more ewigeant than the lungs of a man? 

EXpLanatTIon or tHE Ittusrration.—Fig. 1.—Tomopteris 
onisciformis magnified six diameters. «, the fins, or lateral 
processes ; b, antennz ; c, tentacular cirri; d, eyes; e, aper- 
ture of mouth (in fig. 2); f, esophagus; g, alimentary canal ; 
h, cloaca (?); i, tail-processes, and contiguous glands. Fig. 2. 
—Inferior surface of the head, more highly magnified ; showing 
the insertion of the lens of the eye in the pigment mass; and 
the aperture of the mouth (ec). Fig. 3.—Antenna highly mag- 
unified. Fig. 4.—One of the joints of the tail, with the rudi- 
mentary fins, and the reniform glands. 


158 Photographic Delineation of Microscopic Objects. 


PHOTOGRAPHIC DELINEATION OF MICROSCOPIC 
OBJECTS. 


BY GEORGE 8S. BRADY, M.R.C.S. 


To be able to produce with rapidity and faithfulness representa- 
tions of such objects and phenomena as are visible in the field 
of the microscope, is a matter of great importance to the 
labourer in almost every branch of natural science. Some 
observers are content to discard all adventitious aid, and to 
draw from the microscope in the same way as they would from 
an unmagnified object, relymg for success on their own skill 
as draughtsmen. But though this method when well practised 
gives results, perhaps more spirited and life-like—more artistic 
in short—than any mere camera drawing can do; it is evident 
that the skill required is greater than can be brought to bear by 
the greater number of microscopists, and, moreover, m the best 
case it offers no unquestionable guarantee of faithfulness. To 
obviate these difficulties, to hghten the labour on the one hand, 
and to ensure perfect accuracy, at least of outline, on the other, 
the instruments in common use are the camera lucida of Wol- 
laston and the steel disc of Sommering. These are adapted to 
the eye-piece of the microscope, and by throwing the image 
down on to the table, so that its outline may be easily traced on 
a sheet of paper, they offer very great advantages. But even 
with these appliances, when the object to be drawn is very 
elaborate in its details, the labour mvolved is great, and in the 
case of living organisms their movements are a source of great 
perplexity, as au unlucky twitch cf a limb may in a moment 
render useless the work perhaps of hours. Photography of 
course very early suggested itself as the remedy for all these 
hindrances, and a very encouraging amount of success attended 
the first attempts which were made in this direction. Mr. 
Shadbolt, many years ago, published in the Microscopical 
Society’s Journal one or two very good photographs of micro- 
scopic objects, with an account of the process which he adopted, 
but it does not appear that any great practical results have 
followed so auspicious a beginning. For a long time, indeed, 
the cumbrousness of photographic appliances was a sufficient 
bar to any general use of them. In the midst of microscopic 
investigation, to have to busy oneself with preparing sensi- 
tive plates, and going through the whole processes of exposure, 
development, and fixing, was more than could be tolerated ; 
but now that iodized plates can be kept always ready for use, 
and after exposure may be left any length of time for develop- 
ment, there is very little to be urged as to the wnhandiness of 
the process, which is indeed exceedingly simple. 


Photographic Delineation of Microscopic Objects. 159 


The body of the microscope bemg brought to the horizontal 
position must be inserted into the front of an ordinary portrait 
camera, from which the lens has been previously removed. In 
the absence of a special adapter, the aperture round the tube 
must be stuffed with some convenient material so as to exclude 
light. The image of the object is then to be accurately focussed 
on the ground-glass by means of the ordinary coarse and fine 
adjustment-screws of the microscope.* After focussing, how- 
ever, it will be found necessary to make a trifling alteration in 
the adjustment, for the object-glasses being made with an 
‘“over-correction,’” in order to compensate for the “ under- 
correction”’ of the eye-piece, their visual and chemical foci do 
not correspond; and thus the actinic rays are brought to a 
focus slightly beyond the visual rays. On this account the 
object-glass will need a certain amount of depression varying 
with the power, and the higher the power the less alteration 
will be required ; usually with a quarter of an inch objective 
the chemical and optical foci are so nearly coincident that the 
difference may be overlooked in practice. The amount of de- 
pression required for each lens can only be ascertamed by 
repeated experiment, but the following data which apply to my 
own object-glasses (Powell and Lealand’s) may be taken as an 
approximation. The one inch glass requires a depression 
amounting to one turn and a half of the fine adjustment screw 
(about one seventy-fifth of an inch.) The half inch requires 
about half a turn of the same screw. 

The most satisfactory illummation is a strong sunlight 
reflected directly upon the object by the concave mirror. Light 
reflected from a white cloud opposite the sun, will indeed 
answer the purpose, but the time of exposure is necessarily 
greatly increased, and the impression when obtained is much 
mferior in point of brilliancy and distinctness. 

The “ collodion ” process is doubtless the best that can be 
used for microscopic purposes. Indeed, if the direct sunbeam 
be employed as the illuminating agent, no good result can be 
obtained with a less sensitive material, for the situation of the 
image on the prepared plate is continually altering with the 
altermg position of the sun. The time of exposure must differ 
considerably according to the intensity of the illumination, the 
medium in which the object is mounted, and the nature of the 
object itself. When using the direct rays of the sun I have 
generally found from fifteen to forty-five seconds sufficient for a 
collodion negative. 

Recent discoveries, by means of which sensitive plates may 


* Itis not the aim of this paper to explain the details of ordinary photo- 
graphic manipulation. For information on these points, the reader must consult 
some one of the numerous manuals of photography. 


160 Zoology of the International Hxhibition. 


be constantly kept ready for use, have, as previously stated, 
removed one great impediment to the prosecution of micro- 
scopic photography. The point to which attention should now 
be directed, is the attainment of some simple method of arti- 
ficial illumination. ‘he illuminating agents now in common 
use are all greatly deficient in actinic power; and though pho- 
tographs have been taken by their light, they are practically 
unavailable. It 1s evidently impossible that this application of 
photography should become at all general so long as itis 
entirely dependent on a brilliant sunlight, or on such agents as 
the electric and oxyhydrogen light, but if some easily produced 
flame, rich in actinic rays, could be devised, then we might rea- 
sonably look for a very extensive development of this branch of 
the art. It could then be practised in all weathers, and at all 
hours, and there are few objects which could not be represented 
successfully by 1ts means. 


ZOOLOGY OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 


TuoucH there are very few contributions to the International 
Exhibition that directly claim the attention of the zoologist, 
those that illustrate the great subject of economic zoology are 
literally numberless, and to classify or analyse them in detail is 
both impossible and unnecessary. ‘The British colonies present 
the best examples of complete exhibition, they show us the 
animals and their products side by side; elsewhere we see pro- 
ducts only, except in certain special exhibitions in the English 
and I'rench departments of a strictly zoological kind, and having 
little or no relation to economics. As we traverse the nave we 
catch a sight of skins, furs, fleeces, here and there stuffed speci- 
mens of birds and mammals, but the forms are those we are 
mostly familiar with, and it is only when we have sought out 
and examined the objects we had marked for inspection im the 
catalogue, that we can take a leisurely view of lions, tigers, 
parrots, macaws, and reindeer, which are generally placed as a 
sort of sign-posts to guide and attract visitors to manufacturers’ 
collections of materials and furniture. Still there is as much for 
the zoologist as he would expect in an exhibition which has for 
its main idea to illustrate the progress of handicrafts and the 
mutual commercial relationships of the nations, for of necessity 
many of the most important industries carry us direct to the 
ocean, the pasture, the wilderness, and the jungle, and invite us 
to consider the ways of Nature in fashioning her creatures so 
that life and happiness may go together, and the combination 
subserve the purposes of man. ‘The converse might be said, 


Zoology of the International Hehibition. 161 


perhaps, if we were to indulge in some severe philosophy, and 
the spirit of Pope’s lines on the mutual relations of man and 
goose, would have a new illustration. But dealing with the 
practical, and, following as nearly as possible the order of the 
catalogue, it will be seen that the United Kingdom exhibits 
products only, and though these are of a common-place cha- 
racter, they offer points for the consideration of the scientific 
visitor neither unimportant nor uninteresting. 

Traversing the Tasmanian Courts, we find interesting exhibi- 
tions of the products of the whale fishery, which has become so 
important a branch of the industry of that colony. The Commis- 
missioners’ collections (194—330), and those from W. Powel 
(560—566), and M. Sanderson (579-580), show that the 
sperm whale still abounds in the Southern Ocean. The jaws of 
the sperm whale forming the apex of the trophy will indicate 
that fish of immense size are captured. ‘The whales furnishing 
the two great jaws produced respectively oil and head-matter 
worth £1150 and £900. Balena margimata, Australis, and 
Antarctica, the Australian, New Zealand, and Cape whales ; 
Catodon polycyphus, the South Sea sperm whale, and one or two 
species of Delphinide, afford the sport and profit of the southern 
fisheries, which the Tasmanians have developed with so much 
spirit, and which attract American vessels to share the risks and 
rewards ofthe chace. There are now twenty-five whaling vessels 
attached to the port of Hobart Town, and these employ a fleet 
of 131 boats, two of which are suspended from the Tasmanian 
trophy. last year the exports of oil and head-matter amounted 
to £60,350. New Zealand does not illustrate its position in 
regard to the whale fishery, but Queensland calls attention to 
another of the Cetacea in the exhibitions of dugong oil (22, 24). 
This is obtained from Halicone dugong, one of the herbivorous 
whales, and the most interesting, zoologically, of any of the series 
exhibited, so that wewish a complete skeleton had been forwarded 
for addition hereafter to some of our museums. ‘This fish is 
found in great herds at the mouth of the Brisbane, and is easily 
captured. ‘The flesh would probably prove to be as good for food 
as that of the porpoise (Phocoena communis), which, from the 
time of Henry VIII. to that of Queen Elizabeth, was considered 
a royal dish. Certainly the oil is hkely to acquire as much fame 
for its curative properties as that from the liver of the cod, and 
the Tasmanians have but to make its merits known to secure 
sood markets, and the extension of the fishery. From the 
Cetacea to the Phocideeis but a short zoological step, and in the 
Tasmanian Court are specimens of elephant sealskin. (461.) 
Macrorhinus proboscideus, which the visitor will notice as capable 
of many useful applications in the arts. This is the far-famed 
sea-elephant of the Atlantic and Southern Oceans, which owes 


162 Zoology of the International Exhibition. - 


its name as much to its enormous size as to the possession, 
by the male, of a proboscis. An adult specimen of this species 
measures about twenty-five feet in length. Compare this spe- 
cimen of seal leather, like rhinoceros hide, with another in the 

enmark Court, where J. W. Taylor, of Greenland, has a most 
interesting collection (No. 183). These examples appear to be 
the produce of the harp-seal, Calocephalus Greenlandicus, which 
has less wool than other species, and the hair of the leather flat 
and lustrous. Amongst the specimens is the skin of a seal 
foetus, which may remind the vistor that in certain remote parts 
of Her Majesty’s home empire, cows are killed just before their 
time of calving, for the sake of the skins of the foetuses for first 
class gloves. 

Horns appear in a thousand different shapes. In the Indian 
department Messrs. Halliday and Fox (130) show buffalo horns 
worthy the attention of students of the genus Bos, for the 
Arnee is represented with others less rare. Natal (2) presents 
us with samples of horns of the Cervide of South Africa. New 
Brunswick (31) sends a pair of moose horns of gigantic dimen- 
sions. Let none who take interest in horns miss an inspection 
of the horn furniture in the Austrian department, class 30, from 
H. Kietel of Vienna (1206). 

Visitors bent on natural history studies, will have to con- 
sider the contributions of classes 4 and 25 together. In the 
first are wools, in the second skins, fur, feathers, and hair. The 
sub-class B contains a grand collection of wools from the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England (1007). The Austrian fleeces 
are equally interesting, but the French merinos surpass in beauty 
all the many contributions in this section, and whoever has the 
patience to search them out—scattered as they are through 
many provinces—will be able to read the history of the merino 
and the hitherto meffectual efforts to mould its gaunt outlines 
to models adapted for meat production. Classify all the wools, 
and the result will be that climate is the main element in deter- 
mining their character. Low temperatures favour the growth 
of shaggy wools and abundant grease: high temperatures pro- 
duce silky fleeces almost free from grease, and merge the sheep 
and goat into such approximative forms that at last itis hard to 
distinguish them. 

The English furs comprise gatherings from every climate of 
the world. From the tropics, lions and tigers ; from arctic wilds, 
white and blue foxes; from Siberia, sables. ‘The South Sea 
sealskins, shown by Mr. Lillicrapp (4505), took three years to 
collect in the Falkland Islands. Generally, sealskins are scarce, 
beavers more scarce; the first is following the second in the 
process of extermination. Among the colonies New Zealand 
shows but a poor fauna, but the Australian settlements exhibit 


Se OS Ne oe ee: ie ee ee 


i ee. ee 


7 


ae 


—— 


—e, 


Zoology of the International Hahibition. 1638 


proofs of possessing a wealth of animal life, to which none of 
the European or American communities can offer anything hike 
a parallel. Here, in various forms, we have products of the 
kangaroo, opossum, platypus, flying opossum, black cat, tiger 
cat, and immense collections of birds, mostly of gay plumage. 
In 1872 the Australians may send specimens of home-bred black- 
birds, thrushes, sparrows, and starlings ; these are all naturalized, 
and are increasing wonderfully, to the benefit of the agricultural 
interest. The case of grey and black opossum furs in the Tas- 
manian Court, is one of the most beautiful of the contributions 
from the Australians. 

Notwithstanding some of the main features of the disastrous 
journey of O’Hara Burke into the imterior of Australia, the 
camel is so far a successful introduction that the means of explo- 
ration are added to by its whole value for traversing vast re- 
gions of desert destitute of both herbage and water. ‘There is 
not a single contribution of any kind from either of the pro- 
vinces to illustrate this new item of Australian wealth and 
power, but we may name, in passing, a very interesting collec- 
tion of objects from the interior, collected by J. M. Stuart, and 
exhibited in the South Australian department, under the north- 
east transept, by Mr. J. Chambers (77). The fitness of the 
more tropical parts of that continent for the camel is prefigured 
in the success which has attended the introduction of the 
Lama, Alpaca, and Vicuna. New South Wales, the parent 
colony of the group, leads the way in an enterprise which is 
likely to change the whole character of the pastoral districts by 
the substitution of alpacas for sheep. At the back of the Couré 
iS a case containing seven stuffed specimens—lama, alpaca, and 
five crosses between them. ‘The crosses show several interme- 
diate stages between the bare head and woolly covering of the 
lama, and the covered head and fine, long, hairy wool of the 
alpaca. The Commissioners exhibit articles manufactured from 
alpaca wool (24), and J. Nott (169) shows alpaca tallow and 
pomade. As an experiment in what is termed “ acclimatiza- 
tion,” the introduction of the alpaca to Australia must take first 
rank. The task was undertaken by “an enterprising gentle- 
man named Ledger,” and it occupied him during a period of 
four years to get the flock safely landed. He first visted Aus- 
tralia to ascertain if the climate and native herbage were suitable. 
He then returned to Peru and collected a flock, but the prohi- 
bition of the government against the exportation of the animals 
rendered it impossible to ship them from a Peruvian port. He 
commenced thearduous task of conveying them to Chili overland, 
crossed the Andes slowly but safely with his contraband trea- 
sures, and, after innumerable dangers and difficulties, got them 
to Copiapo, whence they were safely transmitted to Australia. 


164. Zoology of the International Hehibition. 
The flock of 276 was landed at Sydney in November 1858, and 


in spite of some deaths immediately on arrival, in the following 
month of April the flock numbered 284, consisting of 46 pure 
male alpacas, 38 pure female alpacas, 110 pure female lamas, 27 
females cross between alpacas and lamas first generation, 11 
females from male alpacas and females from first cross, 5 females 
from male alpacas and females from second cross; 40 lambs 
first, second, and third cross; 5 male vicunas, 1 female vicuna, 
1 male gelded lama carrier. These animals have thriven beyond 
expectation, and the various crosses, and the right kinds of 
crosses, promise to become subjects as fruitful of discussion as 
those relating to the various breeds of sheep. ‘The colony of 
Victoria obtained alpacas by a quite different process. A person 
named Gee speculated in a flock which he took to New York, 
thence to Glasgow, Birmingham, and London. At London 
some of the animals were sold to Mr. Palliser, Miss Coutts, and 
Mr.G.Lloyd. Mr. Wilson, editor of the Melbourne Argus, bought 
the remaining thirty animals at £23 per head, and shipped them 
for Melbourne, where they have increased, multiplied, and are 
now rendering good profit to their owners. That lamas, alpacas, 
and vicunas should interbreed is neither new nor curious infor- 
mation, for the probabilities are many and strong that they are 
all varieties of one cameline type, differing from the camel chiefly 
in the structure of the foot, which in these is adapted for climb- 
ing, and in the absence in the lamas of two small false molars 
from each jaw. But the breeders of Melbourne and Sydney may 
work out an interesting zoological problem, and perhaps origi- 
nate an additional source of national wealth, in ascertaining if 
the lama and the camel can be made to furnish mules, for it is 
just such an intermediate form as might be expected from the 
cross that is wanted for conveying the baggage of exploring 
parties in the interior. 

Among miscellaneous contributions there are stuffed animals 
of all kinds and from all places. Generally, birds are well done. 
The British birds from G. B. Ashmead (Educational department), 
(5588), A. Bartlett (5589), and W. Short (5611), are admirable 
examples of what may be done for the introduction of natural 
history studies in schools and families. But the most interest- 
ing exhibition of this kind is in the French Court, where M. 
Florent Prevost exhibits specimens of all the small birds of 
France, accompanied with preparations of their stomachs and 
samples of the food they eat. This beautiful collection is accom- 
panied with copies of a pamphlet for free distribution among 
visitors by the Socicté d’Acclimatation. 'The pamphlet is en- 
titled De la destruction du Hanneton (Maybug) et de son 
emploit pour la nowrrture des jeunes oiseaux. If birds are 
well done we cannot say the same for larger animals. The lions, 


Zoology of the International Huhibition. 165 


and tigers, and deer, are mostly stuffed according to museum 
models,—that is, the body is stretched out in the form of a regu- 
lar cylinder, and the legs and head are in any position except 
such as would be seen in life, so that if restored to life in the 
form and proportions which result from the process of “ stuff- 
ing,” none of the deer would be able to graze, and no tiger or 
panther could scratch its ears with the claws of the hind foot, a 
favourite pastime with all the cat tribe when quiteatease. We 
must make honourable exception to the samples of stuffing 
shown in Messrs. Nicolay’s collection, No. 4512, in the nave. 
By passing round to the rear of this stall, the visitor will see 
what is probably the finest example of truly scientific mounting 
ever accomplished. Itis a group of a tiger and a serpent in 
combat, by J. Kiellick of Buttesland Street, Hoxton, and has 
been rewarded, as it deserved, with a medal. This is an ana- 
tomical study rendered romantically truthful by the spirited 
conception of the artist. Under the western dome will be seen 
one of the two royal Bengal tigers sent by Colonel Reid (398), the 
other we have not found, but it is probably close at hand. 
Though mentioned last, this is the grandest contribution of a 
strictly zoological kind in the whole of the Exhibition. In none 
of our museums have we a specimen so truthfully modelled as 
this. Here, indeed, is the expression, attitude, and proportions 
of life; this tiger can scratch its ears, or bound noiselessly 
through the jungle in pursuit of its terrified prey, or escape the 
hunter who has marked him for a prize. If the zoology of the 
Exhibition does not invite lengthened or elaborate comment, it 
is because man rather than Nature is the subject of its illustra- 
tion, and if the zoologist finds but little to call for special remark, 
the ethnologist will be well rewarded, for it has served to bring 
together a greater diversity of living human forms than could 
have been hoped for had it been professedly an ethnological 
congress, and we trust the students of the races of mankind 
have availed themselves of the opportunities offered them to 
add to their stock of knowledge derived from observation. 


VOL, II.—~NO. III. N 


166 The Influence of Mass on the Production of Infusoria. 


THE INFLUENCE OF MASS ON THE PRODUCTION 
OF INFUSORIA. 


BY HENRY JAMES SLACK, F.G.S. 


In the account given of M. Pouchet’s experiments on the 
production of infusoria, in the InrennectuaL Ossrrver, vol. i. 
page 88, reference is made to his theory of the influence of the 
mass of fermenting matter on the character and number of the 
minute beings whose appearance is observed. If your readerswill 
turn to the article alluded to (‘‘ Conditions of Infusorial Life,’’) 
they will find ample details of ,M. Pouchet’s investigations, but 
16 will be well to cite his exact words on the particular subject 
of these remarks. He says, “‘itis evident from this experi- 
ment (one mentioned in an article), and from many others 
which we have made of the same kind, that the organization 
and the number of animalcules became elevated in direct pro- 
portion to-the mass of the body im a state of decomposition.” 

With a view to test this assertion, I took twelve test tubes 
an inch in diameter and about three inches long, arranged in 
two rows ina mahogany stand. By this means the extent of 
surface exposed to the atmosphere would equal that of a good 
sized vessel, and thus the chance of catching floating germs 
would be considerable, while from the small dimensions of 
each tube a fermentation of very limited extent could be con- 
veniently carried on. 

The tubes were charged all alike, with about six drams of 
distilled water, and exactly three grains of finely chopped new 
hay in each. The whole set was placed on the mantelpiece of my 
study, a room with a north aspect, and in which the summer 
temperature remains tolerably steady. The experiment was 
commenced on the 4th of July, and the tubes were examined 
on the 17th of the same month, the thermometer having indi- 
cated about 65° during the whole time. The hay had floated in 
each vessel, and thus was favourably situated for atmospheric 
influence, and in every case a mouldiness was noticeable. 
Number | contained minute vorticellz, mostly without stalks, 
the body when expanded being about 1—400". When con- 
tracted these little creatures were lemon-shaped, the short 
neck being like the nipple-shaped projection noticeable on 
that fruit. They were active and lively, showing alternate 
contractions and expansions, and strong ciliary motion. No.2 
had a number of minute pear-shaped animalcules, with 
conspicuous vacuoles at the thick end, and at the other a 
narrowish neck ending in a small expanded tube. I do not 
know exactly what they were, but thew form was much like 
that of the Spathidium hyalinum, drawn in Micrographie Dic- 


———————————ea—eeaOoer 


The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 167 


tionary excepting that their necks were narrower. No. 3 
contained minute paramecia. No. 4 possessed creatures resem- 
bling urostyla, but less than one-fourth the proper size. They 
had also in front a conspicuous bunch of cilia. The pellicle 
contained multitudes of dead vibrions, minute and short, with 
a few of a longer shape. 

At a later examination No. 2 contained a quantity of round 
and pear-shaped creatures about 1—500 long, frequently 
changing their form, and being covered with fine cilia. No. 3 
had small kolpods. No. 4 kolpods and paramecia. Nos. 5 
and 6 kolpods exhibitmg numerous minute cells all full of 
granules. The remaining tubes were similar to the preceding, 
except one that contained many small rotifers (vulgaris) which 
preserved their small dimensions for some weeks. 

In these cases the quantity of hay was much less than in 
M.Pouchet’s experiments, but in every instance ciliated infusoria 
appeared, and thus no confirmation of his views was obtained 
concerning the dependance of organization on mass. It should 
however, be remarked that all the creatures were minute. Some 
larger specimens were found after three or four weeks, but not 
one of full size. 

I have thought it might interest the readers of the Inrat- 
LECTUAL OssrerverR to call their attention to these simple 
observations, as analogous experiments are easily performed, 
and although few persons would be disposed to adopt M. 
Pouchet’s theory in its entirety, the real influence exercised by 
the mass of fermentible or putrescible matter present in an in- 
fusion is well worthy of research. In every instance I obtained 
animals of high organization under the conditions described. 


THE DEVIL-FISH OF JAMAICA. 
BY THE HON. RICHARD HILL. 


THE Cephaloptera taken in Kingston harbour, on the 10th of 
April, which Iam about to describe, though small, bemg only 
four feet in breadth from the extremity of one pectoral to the 
other, and but two feet one inch and a half from the centre of 
the head to the dorsal fin, situated at the extremity of the 
trunk, with a length of whip-hke tail, two feet six mches more, 
—exhibits all the character of the Cephaloptera Massena of 
Risso. As this specimen of a Devil-fish, the smallest with 
which our fishermen are acquainted, wasa gravid female, having 
within it a foetus just mature for extrusion, sixteen inches 
broad, I take 1b to be a species distinct from any hitherto no- 


168 The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 


ticed. It does not resemble the monsters that have been de- 
scribed as common with us—its length of tail being a peculia- 
rity not recorded in any of the accounts of devil-fishes taken in 
Kingston harbour. ‘The back curves regularly, so that it looks 
humped ; the eyes are lateral, being in the vertical wall of the 
head, with air valves behind each eye. The tail extends im- 
mediately from the angular dorsal fin at the extremity of the 
trunk. ‘The colour is dark vinaceous violet, and green about 
the curvature of the head—the under parts are white. It will 
be seen that the Cephaloptera Massena closely represents the 
fish I am about to notice in all things but diminutive magni- 
tude. 


THE DEVIL-FISH OF JAMAICA. 


“The species Massena,” the great fish of the Mediterra- 
nean, says Risso, “ until lately unknown to naturalists, is dusky 
black above, and dull white beneath. The head wide, is as if 
it had been cut straight along, and is furnished on either side 
with what is called a horn—a prolonged part of the fin—com- 
posed of cartilaginous rays like the pectoral. The two appen- 
dices of the head are on their inner side of a white silvery hue, 
with the extremities black. They display motion at will, di- 
rected towards the object the fish desires to approach. The 
mouth is very wide, and nearly square. The upper lip, ridged 
with a fleshly membrane, has several ranges of teeth over- 
spreading the upper jaw; the lower is covered with a similar 
set of teeth in a silver-tinted band. ‘The iris of the eye is of 
a dull yellow, with the pupil black. The pectoral fins are 
triangular, with an upward curvature, and two ventral fins are 


EE eee ey 


The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 169 


between the pectoral and the dorsal fin. The long slender tail 
has three angular surfaces, and diminishes to a point.” 

The monstrous skate, said by Pére Labat to have been ob- 
served by the negroes of Guadaloupe, and described as fourteen 
feet French broad, and ten feet from the head to the com- 
mencement of the tail, with the tail fifteen feet more, and alto- 
gether twenty-five feet long, was obviously a kindred ray to 
our devil-fish ; and the monster spoken of by the early voyagers 
as suffocating the pearl divers, and known by the name of 
Manta, wasa similar animal. But the devil-fishes, best known 
in Kingston harbour, which we will notice by and bye, differ 
from these species by having a tail short in length, but agree- 
ing with the specimen recently taken, in bemg without any 
serrated spine, like the sting of the sting-ray. 

I feel surprised that so careful an observer of distinctions 
in species as Mr. Yarrel, should have entertamed the supposi- 
tion that Risso, in recording two Mediterranean Cephalopteras, 
had mistaken one and the same species in two conditions of 
growth,—the Giorna, and the Massena. He says:—“I am 
aware that M. Risso considers he has found, in addition to the 
Giorna, a second species in the vicinity of Nice; but several 
good authorities believe that his examples of Cephaloptera Mas. 
sena are only old and large specimens of Cephaloptera Giorna.”” 
Now, independent of the precise distinctions set down by 
Risso in the two species, he mentions as particular differences 
the tail spine that is present in one and wanting in the others. 
His words are conerning the Giorna, ‘“aculeo longissimo ad 
basin caudze apterygiee ;” and Massena, “ aculeo nullo in caudé, 
trifariam aspera.” ‘This is a very important difference. The 
aculeus or sting is wanting in all our Cephalopteras, and the 
lengthened tail is found only in the species I now notice. In 
that respect it agrees with Father Labat’s monster of Guada- 
loupe, and differs from Le Vaillant’s Atlantic specimens, and 
from the enormous fishes described by Lieutenant Lamont in 
the Hdinburgh Journal of Science; and from the gigantic ray 
taken in Delaware Bay by the smack “Una,” and described 
by Mr. Mitchel in a letter to the president of the New York 
Lyceum of Natural History, in 1823. Having made these in- 
troductory remarks, I shall proceed to give my notes of the 
fish of April the 10th. 

The position of the eyes is peculiar ; the direct vision, that 
is, the seeing of objects immediately ahead of the fish, is cut 
off entirely by that projecting extension of the pectorals at 
their junction with the head, which gives the head the appear- 
ance of having horns. A divergence of the pectoral fins here 
forms two flat flaps when opened out, but they are always ver- 
tically rolled up, twisted like a coiled leaf, with a twirl that 


170 The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 


fashions it into a groove, through which the water can pass as 
through a cylinder, when the fish glides onward. Between 
these two horned processes of the head, horn-like in appear- 
ance, but not horn-like at all in structure, extends the crescent 
curvature of the head, beneath which opens the wide cavity of 
the mouth. It stands constantly open, the fringes of the five 
plates of gills being seen to stretch from one side to the other 
of the vocal floor. ‘The eyes are placed in the straight vertical 
walls of the head, for the head is very angular. They are, 
consequently, capable of surveying objects only laterally. One 
sees clearly that the habit of the Cephaloptera is that of a 
ground-feeder. It is formed for shoving through the fields of 
turtle-grass, testudinaria, but, unlike the rays which are likewise 
ground feeders, it does not seize its prey on the ground, but 
pushing on through the marine herbage, it takes into its wide 
open mouth the congregated living things that are in its way— 
it may be the fish that nestle in the vegetation, or the naked 
mollusca that depasture there—at once swallowing them, or 
rather cramming them in with its cranial arms into its mouth and 


stomach, without deglutition, having no cesophagus. As the 
animal in this gathering in of food cannot see forward, it must 
depend on casualties in the course it steers through the marie 


meadows for prey. The rolled-up head-fins between the 


crescented head, sufficiently direct the food to the mouth. The 
pectorals have the ordinary arrangement of the fins of rays. 
‘They move the fish onward by successive flaps, alternately 
right and left, and left and right. The figure of the fish is 
flattened, but not flat; the back is round and humpy; the 
dorsal fin is small and angular, and situated at the commence- 
ment of the tail. 

‘Most men,” says White of Selborne, ‘‘are sportsmen by 
constitution, and there is such an inherent spinit for hunting in 
human nature, as scarce any inhibitions can restrain.” Port 
Royal, usually exhibiting no stir of life out of the garrison or 
the dockyard, is thrown into a state of bustle and excitement at 
the intelligence thatthe naval and artillery officers are away for 
a day’s sport with the devil-fish. Every boat on the beach is 
launched, and canoes in numbers are seen gliding rapidly, where 
it is announced that the harpoon has struck a sea-devil. A 
string of vessels is now fastened to the boat that contaims the 


The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 171 


harpooner, and the retinue is towed away to sea for miles by 
the monster fish. If they bring him in, a team of oxen—if 
there were ever such a thing as a team of oxen in Port Royal 
—would not be able to drag him ashore. Just before I visited 
Port Royal, some seven years ago, the garrison officers had 
brought in two fishes after one of these exciting chases, but I 
learnt little more than that they were captured. A graphic narra- 
tive of the taking of two devil-fishes some five-and-thirty years 
ago, will be found in the eleventh volume of the Kdinburgh Pla- 
losophical Journal, and this narrative, which was communicated 
by Lieutenant Lamont of the 91st Regiment, I will condense and 
give here. 

The heutenant had been called to the beach by seeing a 
multitude gathered to look at a sea-devil floating past. His 
curiosity turned to surprise when he saw flapping on the surface 
of the water, about twenty yards from the shore, a large, living, 
dark-coloured mass, whose shape and size he could not imme- 
diately determine, but which seemed prodigiously big beyond 
anything he could conceive, since it so much exceeded all that 
he had seen or heard of fishes. The boats were started off to 
pursue it passing onward. It was harpooned; but no sooner 
was the monster stricken, than it made off with amazing 
velocity, towing the boat of the harpooner after him. <A suc- 
cession of boats now came up. ‘These strung themselves on to 
the harpooner one ofter another, striking each a harpoon as the 
boats came up. They consecutively formed a long line, but 
such was the strength of the fish, that the whole retinue were 
trailed out ten miles to sea. Night was drawing on. To bring 
the chase to a close another harpoon was struck into the monster, 
when it made one convulsive effort to get away, and broke 
loose, carrying away eight or ten harpoons and pikes, and 
leaving every one staring with astonishment at the success with 
which it snatched itself eventually from its pursuers. 

Lieutenant Lamont gives another account of the taking of 
a devil-fish within the harbour, when the animal traversed up 
and down, dragging with such velocity the boat that struck 
him, that those who followed could not overtake it. The 
struggle of this monster to get away was tremendous. He 
plunged in the midst of the boats that now surrounded him ; 
he darted from the surface to the bottom of the water, and 
from the bottom to the surface alternately, dashing the water 
into foam on every side, and rolling round and round to extri- 
cate himself from the pole and line. Unable by these expe- 
dients to get away, he set to swimming and towing the boats 
now strung together. After continuing this run for a time, 
this sea-devil then suddenly brought the retinue to a stop 
by laying himself at the bottom of the water. From this po- 


172 The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 


sition the stretch and strain of all the boats pulling away from 
him, could not move him. Slackening their tension they en- 
ticed him inch by inch to rise. He once more was afloat, when 
a shower of musket-balls and pikes literally riddled him through 
and through. Though wounded in this way, he still floated 
alive. Until this capture was effected by Lieutenant St. John 
of the artillery and his military companions, it was supposed 
that a sea-devil was beyond the main and might of human art 
or strength. The dimension of this fish was not more than 
half that of the common size—it was only fifteen feet in width. 
A man, however, entered its mouth with ease, the space being 
two feet and a half. 

Lieutenant Lamont says, that wishing to know what the 
sea-devil fed upon, he saw the stomach opened. It was round, 
and studded with circular spots of a muscular substance. It 
had transverse muscular layers from one end to the other, and 
contained nothing but slime and gravel. The weight of the 
fish was so great that with difficulty forty men, with two lines 
attached to it, dragged it along the ground. 

In the account of the fish taken in Delaware Bay, it is stated 
that, drawing a boat after it with the celerity of a whale when 
harpooned, it caused a wave to rise on each side the trough of 
the sea several feet higher than the boat; that during the 
scuffle the vast fins of the fish lashed the sea with such vehe- 
mence that the spray rose to the height of thirty feet, and 
rained dropping water around to the distance of fifty feet; and 
yet the measurement of this fish was only half that of the 
generality of those seen, being only eighteen feet in breadth. 
Three pairs of oxen, one horse, and twenty-two men, all pulling 
together, with the surge of the Atlantic to help, could barely 
convey it on to the dry beach. 

When Lieutenant Lamont speaks of the cavity of the mouth 
being so wide that two men could be seated within it, it must 
be remembered that the Cephaloptera—added to a much greater 
degree of extension than is common with the ray tribe—has a 
mouth and stomach constructed without any intervening ceso- 
phagus. Both form together but one cavity, and the dimen- 
sions are disproportionately large to the bulk of the body.* 

The largest of these fishes that ever came under my own 
eyes was when I was on board a vessel of Bordeaux, on my 
way from Haiti to France. We had just cleared the last of the 
Bahamas, and as we gently scudded onward with the wind on 
our beam, we sailed close alone one of the Cephalopteras 


* Lorenzini’s account of the torpedo’s structure is:—“ Lo stomacho e con- 
tinuato con la bocca, una sola, et uns» medisima cavita, la quale a proporzione de 
la animal é vasta.” Quoted by Dr. John Davy, in his account of the torpedo 
Kesearches Physiological and Anatomical, vol. ii. 


The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 173 


leisurely flapping and floundering on the surface of the brokeu 
water, striking first one fin into the air and then the other, and 
presenting a bulk of living flesh half the dimensions of the ves- 
sel. The sea-devil is the fish that Barrere and other travellers 
speak of, of such uncommon dimensions, springing above the 
surface of the sea, and splashing the water to an immense 
height when falling into the sea again. It was these fishes that 
Le Vaillant saw in his second voyage to Africa, the smallest 
one, which he caught, being twenty-five feet long in the body, 
and some thirty feet wide in the fins. It is of this fish that 
Sonnini speaks when he represents a flat fish seen on the surface 
larger and wider than the vessel he was sailing in. The most 
interesting narrative is that of Risso, of a fish taken in 1807, in 
a net at Nice, called a mandrague, a net divided into chambers, 
and stretched out with anchors, and gathered in by boats. It 
was a female, Cephaloptera Massena, the vacca of the Mediter- 
ranean fishermen. It weighed 1328 lbs. avoirdupois. When the 
female fish had been taken, the male, which was afterwards cap- 
tured, and weighed 885 lbs., haunted for two days the spot where 
its mate had disappeared. ‘The female had been trussed up, by 
having its tail stuck into its gills. In this posture it moaned 
piteously. The companion fish wandered round and round the 
nets, searching for it, and was finally taken in the same man- 
drague in which its mate had been caught, but was quite dead. 
There is something amusingly touching in this love of sea-devils 
—the moaning captive, and the woe-begone wanderer seeking 
his lost one, with the lover finding no solace but in dying in the 
toils in which the object of his affection had perished. 

Are we to take the occurrence related by Colonel Hamilton 
Smith, in the Boca del Drago of Trinidad, as appetite or mere 
devilry? He says that just after daylight, a soldier from the 
ship he was in was observed by the man in the maintop desert- 
ing, swimming from the vessel. He was called on to return, 
but just at the moment a devil-fish threw one of his fins over 
him, when he disappeared, and was seen no more. 

The sea-devils luxuriate much upon the surface of the sea. 
In Kingston harbour, where at times they are common enough, 
they have excited great apprehension by being unexpectedly 
approached floating on the surface, or swimming just beneath 
it. The horn-lke processes, mistaken for a mouth wide open ; 
the flapping fins so much apart, creating misconceptions of the 
form of the fish and of its dimensions, and increasing the dread 
of danger at a distance; and even the disregard of the fish for 
objects out of the range of its lateral vision, im seeming to be in 
pursuit of what may be ahead, when it is only indifferent about 
avoiding it, because it does not perceive it, are incidents that 
terrify. Sometimes the evening excursionist, on the quiet moon- 


Se 


174 The Devil-fish of Janvaica. 


light waters of the harbour, has been alarmed by a sudden drench- 
ing billow in a tranquil sea, nothing being seen to account for the 
unexpected wave, the fact being that a devil-fish at the moment 
had been neared by the boat, and had heaved the waters with its 
fins in hastening away. Fortunately, the Cephaloptera is not as 
frolicsome as it congeners, the sting-rays. The 7’rygon and the 
Myhobats will frequently sprmg out of the water, and pitch 
themselves on toa distance like quoits. The Cephalopteras are 
only fond of sauntering about in the sunshine, flapping their 
breadth of fin in and out, first one fin and then the other. In 
an early morning sail that 1 took some years ago from Passage 
Fort to Kingston, amid the stretch of shoals there, with their 
clumps of mangroves,* the devil-fisheswere to be seen dotting the 
waters like lotus-leavesinapond. Itis onthe sands thereabout 
that the Scylliwm cirratwm will be found basking by hundreds 
in the month of July. This scyllium is the nurse-shark, and to 
these banks the fishermen go to “strike” them, as they phrase 
it, and take them for their oil. Here a multitude of fishes will 
be seen sporting at early morning. The esox amuses itself with 
leaping from left to right and from right to left over every stick 
floating in its way. Here the Hemiramphus will be observed 
spinning along the smooth sea in successive skips, with only his 
tail in the water, which he uses like the propeller of a screw- 
steamer; and here we meet with our cetaceous dolphins rolling 
and tumbling. Inhabitants of the water are very frolicksome 
in the uprismg daylight. I confess that when I see their 
sportiveness, the evidence of their exuberant enjoyment of life, 
their swimming hither and thither, sometimes few and some- 
times many together, swift or slow, gentle or rapid, just as it 
pleases them, the element seems to me to have in it that espe- 
cial pleasantness exhibited by a parcel of boys in a morning 
bathe. Water has a feeling of comfort exceedingly appreciable, 
and I think, above all, sea-water. 

The Cephaloptera seem to me to include in the different 
forms of their numerous species (for the species are undoubtedly 
many) all the caudal diversities of the ordinary ray, or skate 
family. Some have the whiplike tail of the Trygon pastinacste, 
armed. with the serrated spine, as the giorna of the Mediterra- 
nean; some the same flagelliform tail, lengthened and small in 
diameter, as in the Myliobatis aquila, but without the caudal spine, 
as in the specimen here particularly described, which I would 
call the Massenoidee ; others are short-tailed and spineless, as 
in the Raia batis, or tinker skate of Norfolk (England). Such 
are the monster skates of Kingston harbour described by Lieut. 
Lamont. Again, the caudal fin is forked, or double-lobed, as 


* For avery interesting account of the mangrove-tree, see Gosse’s Naturalist's 
Sojourn in Jamaica, pp. 245—7. 


The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 175 


in the torpedo. Such was the form of the tail in the Atlantic 
specimens taken by Le Vaillant in his voyage to Africa. All 
these differences elevate the Cephaloptera into a family of the 
Plagiostomt, as distinct as the squatina is from the raia, or the 
torpedo from the trygon. 

Risso concludes his description of Cephaloptera Massena, 
the great monster fish of the Mediterranean, with these obser- 
vations. He says:—‘“‘It is a fish of dimensions so extraor- 
dinary, of a shape so remarkable, and endowed with such sin- 
eular affections, that one undoubtedly feels astonished it has 
remained unknown till now, living, as it does, in a sea in which 
systematic fishing has been carried on for somany ages. It is 
true that it 1s exceedingly rare, and that its capture is always 
looked upon as a presage of great events by those whose minds 
yield to prejudices. These fishes, however, come near shore 
only when they are driven in by storms.”* 

One cannot contemplate the expanse of flesh in a sea-devil 
without wishing for a sight of the giant economy when the skin 
is removed, with its numerous phalanges divided into parts ; its 
cartilaginous belt, girding in the cavity of its mouth and sto- 
mach ; its carpal bones, its pelvic apparatus, and that cranial 
expansion with its adaptation for scooping in food. The gigantic 
mass would present a prodigious map of the structure of the 
fish. 

The Cephaloptera affect the surface waters to obtain the ne- 
cessary degree of warmth for the maturation of the foetus, the fish 
being viviparous. Our fishermen say that the mother fish makes 
the violent leaps she is seen to take out of the water to eject 
the foetus from the matrix ; that the young fish is then observed 
to fall from her; and that for a time it swims upon the parent’s 
back, and possibly enters the wide mouth-sack when necessary 
to seek shelter from apprehended danger. As approach to these 
monsters 18s always hazardous, the observation of such a fact as 
this last must ever be casual and doubtful. Nothing is certain 
but that its habits are peculiar. ke Vaillant, when speaking 
of the three fishes he saw in 10° 15’ north in the Atlantic, 
one so large that it seemed fifty or sixty feet wide, relates that 
they all three carried each on his horns a white fish about half 
a yard long, which appeared to be stationed there on duty as 


* Le Cephaloptére Massena, est un poisson dont les dimensions sont si extra- 
ordinaires, les formes si remarquables, ct les affections si singuliéres, qu’on sera 
sans doute étonné qwil soit resté inconnu jusqu’é ce jour; quoique vivant dans 
une mer sur laquelle Part de la péche s’exerce depuis tant de siécles. Il est vrai 
gu’il y est fort rare, et que sa capture y est toujours regardée comme un présage de 
grands événemens, par les esprits soumis aux préjugés. Ces poissons ne s’appro- 
chent des rivages que lorsqu’ils y échouent par l’efiet des tempétes.—Ichthyologie 
de Nice, ow Histoire naturelle des Poissons du Département des Alpes maritimes, 
par A. Risso, Membre associé de Académie Impériale de Turin. Paris, 1810. 


176 The Devil-fish of Jamaica. 


sentinels to keep watch for the safety of the devils, and to 
guide their movements; that these sentinels passed over their 
backs when they rose too high, and repassed under them till 
they descended deeper, disappearing and being seen no more 
for a time, but reappearing and resuming their post as sentries, 
when the fish again ascended to the surface. These remarkable 
habits render the story of the young devil-fish swimming on 
the mother’s back a probable occurrence. ‘“‘ During the three 
days,’ says Le Vaillant, ‘that the calm continued, and the ship 
remained motionless, these occurrences were many times re- 
peated before the eyes of all on board as to each of the three 
monsters.” ‘These facts relate to the Remora or sucking-fish, 
but they illustrate the habit of the sea-devils, and possibly ex- 
plain their association with their young, and their appearing to 
swim on the back of their mother-fish. 

I have said the fish taken on the 10th of April in Kingston 
harbour, and named by me Cephaloptera Massenoidea, was a 
gravid female. The foetus was in the stage just prior to birth. 
The colour on the back was as intensely violet as in the 
mother sea-devil, and the whip tail just as firm; the radial 
cartilaginous plates of the head lay flattened. ‘The flukes of 
fins were folded over the back, lapping one another thus :— 


The fins when extended were 16 inches across, the length of 
the body from head to the tail 24 inches. 

Cephaloptera are taken in other harbours of Jamaica be- 
side Kingston. On the 4th of May, 1854, a female devil-fish 
was caught in Montego Bay, another being seen at the same 
time in company. ‘There being no shoal-banks about Montego 
Bay, the sort of grounds they resort to, these fishes had 
probably strolled from the Cayos opposite, the “ Jardinas, or 
Gardens of the Queen,” on the coast of Cuba, a prodigious 
feeding ground for all our tropical fishes. 

[P.8S.—Since the above was written the Hon. Richard Hill 
has communicated an account of another “ sea-devil,”’ caught in 
Kingston harbour on the 18th of April. In this specimen the 
cranial arms were flat, and not coiled up as in the fish of the 
10th ; the position of the eyes was different ; the tail was only 
two feet long—quite a rudimentary proportion compared with 
the body, which was nine feet six inches long, and fifteen feet 
six inches wide across the expanded pectoral fins. | 


On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 177 


---- Fractured-----—— 


|------ 

CU]! I i TN 

, cane A 
a : 


Ly 


ON AN INSCRIBED ROMAN TILE RECENTLY FOUND 
IN LEICESTER. 


BY THOMAS WRIGHT, F.S.A. 


In the course of excavations made in the year 1854 in Bath 
Lane, in Leicester, the workmen found, among other relics of 
the Roman town of Rate, a broken Roman tile, which presented 
in itself no particular terest. It was an ordinary roof-tile, 
flanged at the sides, measuring in breadth fifteen inches and a 
half, and in its present condition, for it is broken at one end, 
twelve inches on one side and thirteen on the other in length. 
When perfect, it perhaps formed nearly a square. On exami- 
nation, however, this tile was found to bear stamped on its sur- 
face a legionary mark of considerable interest in regard to the 
history of our island under the Romans; considerable, I may 
state, only on account of the very faint glimpses history has 
spared us of the events which occurred in Britain from the 
second to the fourth century. It may be taken, indeed, as a 
very good example how relics of apparently little importance 
may often throw great light on our primeval antiquities, and 
how cautious we ought to be in despising or rejecting anything. 
To explain the interest of this old broken tile, it will be ne- 
cessary to review briefly the history of the Roman legions 
employed m conquering and retaining this distant province of 
the empire. 

Jt is hardly necessary to state that the military force ot 
Rome was originally divided into a certain number of legions, 
the strength of each varymmg at different pericds from four 
thousand to six thousand infantry, with about three hundred 
cavalry. In Ceesar’s first expedition to Britain, he brought with 


178 On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 


him two legions, which were, as we learn in the course of his 
narrative, the seventh and the tenth. In his second expedition 
he brought five legions with him; we know, from an incidental 
mention of it, that the seventh legion was one of them, and the 
tenth also probably accompanied it, but the names of the other 
three are unknown. As on the former occasion, these legions 
were all withdrawn on Ceesar’s departure, and Britain was not 
again visited by Roman troops until the accession to the empire 
of Claudius, who, in the year 43, sent Aulus Plautius mto Bri- 
tain at the head of four legions, which are known from various 
authorities to have been the second, ninth, fourteenth, and 
twentieth. The first of these was commanded by Vespasian, 
the future emperor, and they seem to have been all what we 
should now term “crack regiments,” proud of their reputa- 
tion, and, under the influence of this pride, very ready to 
mutiny. Under the propreetorship of Sultonins Paullinus, the 
ninth legion only appears to have been left in the south, while 
the three others were employed, under Suetonius in person, 
on the borders of Wales, the second legion being especially 
occupied in establishing itself in the country of the Silures. 
At this time, no doubt, the Roman town of Isca, now Caerleon, 
in Monmouthshire, was founded, as well as Deva or Chester, the 
former to be the head-quarters of the second legion, the latter 
of the twentieth. It is well known that im the revolt of Boa- 
dicea, in the year 61, the ninth legion, which had attempted 
alone to arrest the progress of the imsurgents, was nearly 
destroyed, and that Suetonius hurried to suppress the insurrec- 
tion with the fourteenth and twentieth legions, leaving the 
second in the country of the Silures. Two thousand soldiers 
were sent from the continent to recruit the ninth legion, but, as 
far as we can judge from the accounts of what it had suffered, 
this number must have been very insufficient. The civil com- 
motions which soon disturbed the Roman empire, prevented the 
arrival of further recruits during some years, while, besides 
other troops which were carried away from Britain to assist 
in the struggle for power, the whole fourteenth legion was 
carried to Italy by Suetonius Paullinus to support Otho against 
Vitellius, the latter being, as it appears, universally unpopular 
among the soldiers in this island. When Vitellius had secured 
the empire for himself, he was probably glad to remove the 
brave and not very loyal fourteenth legion to its distant pro- 
vince, and it returned to Britain with the new propreetor, 
Vettius Bolanus; but when Vespasian, who was personally 
known to the legions in this island, and was as popular among 
them as Vitellius was detested, sought to obtain the imperial 
purple, the fourteenth legion crossed the channel to assist him, 
and left Britain in a.p. 69, never to return. The number of 


On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 179 


Roman legions in this island was thus reduced to three, the 
second, the ninth, and the twentieth. 

All that we know cf the subsequent movements cof the Ro- 
man legions in Britain, which is very little, is gathered from one 
or two slight allusions in the Roman writers, and from inscrip- 
tions found on monuments which have been from time to time 
discovered on sites those legions had permanently or temporarily 
occupied. These inscriptions generally are of three kinds, those 
on tomb-stones, or dedications of altars, etc., or inscriptions 
relating to buildings which they had erected or repaired. The 
tomb-stones, commemorating only the deaths and burials of 
individuals, are but of secondary value, because the fact of the 
death and burial of an officer or soldier of a legion in a certain 
place does not necessarily imply that the whole legion, or even 
any considerable part of it, was there. The votive monuments 
are of more value; but the most important of all for our purpose 
are the inscriptions recording work performed by the soldiers. 
The Roman legions, in this respect unlike the troops of modern 
times, were never allowed to be idle ; when not engaged in hos- 
tilities, they were employed on public works, such as making 
roads, throwing up fortresses, and erecting public buildings of 
various descriptions, and they commemorated their labours by 
inscribed tablets of stone, on which in some cases (especially in 
building defensi¥e walls of great extent) the quantity of work 
performed by each detachment was stated, or by stamping 
merely the name of the legion on the tiles or bricks used in the 
construction. These last mentioned inscriptions are found in 
great abundance on the sites of the towns which were occupied 
by the legions. 

When Julius Agricola undertook the conquest of the Cale- 
donians, he no doubt carried with him to the north the three 
legions thenin Britam. He was himself the commander of the 
twentieth legion, and we learn from Tacitus that the ninth legion 
took partin the decisive campaign against Galgacus in the year 
83. This legion appears never to have recovered the losses it 
had sustamed in the war against Boadicea, and it is described 
by Tacitus as being at this time weaker than the others; yet 
it was unfortunate enough to be left in an exposed position, 
where it was surprized and almost cut to pieces by the Caledo- 
nians. After this event, the ninth legion disappears from 
history, and the effective legionary force in the island appears 
to have been almost reduced to the second and twentieth 
legions. But when, in the year 120, the Hmperor Hadrian repaired 
into Britain in person to put a check upon the attacks of the 
formidable Caledonians, he brought with him another legion, 
the sixth, which had been previously established on the borders 
of Germany. The emperor had with him in the north, with 


180 On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 


this new legion, the second and the twentieth, for numerous 
ascribed monuments still attest the work performed by each of 
these three legions in the erection of the great wall which by his 
orders was carried across the island from the Solway to the 
Tyne. 

é I must now speak of another peculiarity of the Roman 
military system, namely, the custom of establishing the different 
legions through the various parts of the empire in permanent 
quarters, which the same legion continued to occupy until the 
empire itself was broken up. We trace, in the narrative of 
Tacitus, the second legion establishing its quarters in the 
country of the Silures as early as the middle of the first cen- 
tury, and the twentieth was no doubt stationed at Deva about 
the same time; while inscriptions found at York leave little 
doubt that that city, called by the Romans Eburacum, was the 
station of the ninth legion, which had probably been placed 
there as a check upon the incursions of the Caledonians. The 
entire disappearance of the ninth legion after Agricola’s last 
campaign in the north, has been explained by the probable 
supposition that Hadrian found it so greatly reduced in num- 
bers that he incorporated it with the sixth legion, which he had 
brought with him from Gaul; and this, again, will explain why 
the quarters of the sixth legion were subsequently established 
at Hburacum. In the geography of Ptolemy} usually ascribed 
to the year 120, and apparently compiled very soon after the 
date of Hadrian’s visit, these three legions only are enume- 
rated as being then in Britain, the second legion at Isca (Caer- 
leon), the sixth at Eburacum (York), and the twentieth at Deva 
(Chester). ‘Tiles, with the legionary stamps of the second and 
twentieth legions, have been found in some places in Wales, and 
probably mark stations at which detachments of those legions 
were often posted, for reasons with which no historical records 
have made us acquainted ; but the three legions just enumerated 
were never moved from their permanent head-quarters, until the 
time when the imperial authority was withdrawn from the island, 
and we have no account of the presence of any other legion in 
Britain. When, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, twenty years 
after Hadrian’s expedition, the propreetor, Lollius Urbicus, 
marched against the Caledonians, he took with him all the 
legions in Britain, and the numerous inscribed slabs commemo- 
rating the building of portions of the great line of defence known 
as the wall of Antoninus, which have been found from time to 
time, make us acquainted with the share each of these three 
legions, and no others, performed in it. In the struggle for 
empire which ended in the elevation of Severus to the purple, 
in A.D. 197, the troops in Britain supported the claims of 
Albinus, and some portion at least of the legions went over to 


On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 181 


the continent to fight in his cause; but they appear to have 
returned to their old quarters soon after his defeat, for in the 
record which is known by the title of the Itinerary of Anto- 
minus, and which is supposed to have been compiled about the 
year 320, we still find the second legion at Isca, the sixth at 
Eburacum, and the twentieth at Deva. About a century later, 
on the eve of the final withdrawal of the Roman legions, when 
the official work known as the Notitia Utriusque Imperti was 
drawn up, it appears from that important record that the 
twentieth legion had already been withdrawn from the island, 
and that the second legion had been removed from Isca to 
Rhutupize (Richborough, in Kent), probably on its way to the 
Continent, but where it remained under the disposition of the 
count of the Saxon shore; but as the sixth legion is there 
stated to be under the disposition of the dua Britanniarum, 
whose authority extended over all the garrisons in the north of 
Britain, it no doubt still remained in its quarters at Hburacum. 
None of these records intimate the presence of any other legion 
in Britain. 

Jt must thus be a matter of some surprise when we find a 
monument recording the presence of the eighth Roman legion at 
Ratee (Leicester) ; yet such is the case with the tile of which we 
are speaking, and which, with its stamped inscription, is repre- 
sented in the accompanying cut. This inscription is easily 
read as L.vil. The letters are, as will be seen, reversed, which 
is not very unusual on the stamps of the legionary tiles, and is 
explained without difficulty. The stamps for the pottery, and 
for other articles for sale and for domestic purposes, were en- 
graved deliberately and with care on metal or stone, because 
they were intended for permanent use; but when the soldiers 
of a legion were proceeding to the erection of a building, and 
made the tiles for it, they probably cut their stamp hastily on 
a piece of wood for the occasion, and at times a worthy soldier 
thus employed forgot that what he thus cut on the stamp would 
be reversed in the impression. Hxamples of similar reversed 
inscriptions on the Roman tiles, made by soldiers of the second 
legion, will be found in Mr. Lee’s excellent and valuable 
“‘ Catalogue” of the antiquities collected in the Museum at 
Caerleon, recently published. The form of the letter 1 is another 
peculiarity of this stamp, for, though itis found in other inscrip- 
tions, it is not very common. It occurs in the inscription on 
an altar dedicated to the Dez Matres found at York, the date 
of which is uncertain. It is also met with in an interesting 
Roman inscription on the rock of the Roman stone-quarries on 
the bank of the river Gelt, near Brampton, in Cumberland, which 
is engraved and deseribed by Dr. Bruce, in his well-known 
work on The Roman Wall (page 64 of the second edition). 

VOL, I1,—NO. III. O 


182 On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 


This inscription also is the work of legionary soldiers, and 
informs us that it was made by men of the second legion, when 
they were employed in quarrying here in the consulship of 
Flavius Aper and Albinus Maximus, which fixes the date to the 
year 207. It appears, indeed, that this form of the letter L was 
in use during the third century. It may be further remarked, 
that the peculiar character of this monument of the eighth 
legion has its significance. A mere tablet might have implied 
simply that the legion in its march had halted to raise or repair 
some work of defence; but a tile, and that a roof-tile, marked 
with the name of the legion, shows that the soldiers were em- 
ployed in erecting buildings of a different character, and those 
buildings were most probably for their own accommodation. 
They were, in all probability, barracks. The tile thus furnishes 
strong evidence that the eighth Roman legion was stationed for 
some time at Rate, or Leicester, probably at some period in 
the third century. 

We are not very well acquainted with the history of the 
movements of the eighth legion. It appears to have been 
stationed on the borders of Germany, and Mr. Roach Smith, 
in the second volume of his Collectanea Antiqua (page 140), 
enumerates tiles bearing its stamp found at Niederbieber, on 
the Rhine, which show that it was at some period stationed 
there. We have no intimation in any historical record of the 
sending of this legion into Britain, and the date and object of 
its visit are, therefore, left entirely to conjecture. If it had 
come over hither with Severus, it would hardly have been left 
at Rate, but would more probably have been taken to the 
north ; and we have no reason for supposing that that emperor 
brought a legion over with him. But the latter part of the 
same century was the age of Carausius and Allectus,-and when 
Constantius came over in 292 to restore the rebellious province 
to the empire, and had need of a very formidable army (as the 
three legions in Britain would be arrayed against him), it is 
extremely probable that he brought even more than one legion 
over with him. The eighth legion was ready at hand, as Ger- 
many and Gaul were in his division of the empire. Constantius, 
victorious, established his residence at Hburacum (York), which 
was now considered as the military capital of Britain; and as 
he came not to meet a foreign enemy, but to restrain a rebel- 
lious population, it is not at all improbable that, during his 
stay here, which ended only with his death, he may have. 
stationed a legion at Rate. 

Thus, in this inscribed tile, accidentally preserved, we have, 
perhaps, the only monument remaining of one of the most in- 
teresting events in the annals of our island during the Roman 
period, and one of which the history is very obscure, the re- 


Orgamzation and Life. 183 


conquest of the province by the Emperor Constantius, the 
father of that Emperor Constantine who went from Britain to 
make Christianity the State religion of the Roman empire. 
How many such monuments, in appearance worthless, but 
which might have assisted in throwing great light on the his- 
tory of our country, have been destroyed through the igno- 
rance of those who happened to find them! It ought surely 
to be a warning to us to be cautious in rejecting or neglect- 
ing any relic of antiquity, because it may appear at first sight 
of small value or of triflmg importance. 


ORGANIZATION AND LIFE.* 


From the earliest ages of speculative thought, the human mind 
has occupied itself with the vast and perplexing questions of 
organization and life; but notwithstanding centuries of ex- 
perience to show the proper limitations of such an inquiry, it is 
still rare to find a writer or an investigator who will adhere to 
an inductive method, and abstain from mingling the guess- 
work of mere hypothesis with the pursuit of experiment, or the 
elucidation of fact. An inquiry into organization necessarily 
belongs to the domain of physical science, and demands 
physical methods of procedure, which are incapable of dealing 
with elements of a purely metaphysical kind. Physical science 
reveals a wondrous order and harmony of forces and arrange- 
ments, extending through all the time and all the space with 
with which we are acquainted; and as our minds take cogni- 
zance of such facts, we are irresistibly led to the contemplation of 
an Intelligent First Cause. Let us, however, distinctly under- 
stand that it is not a mechanical process, a chemical process, 
or a physiological process that conducts us to this result; all 
that the physical sciences do is to give us information, about 
which we cogitate according to the laws of thought, and thus 
arrive at a perception of their connection with a class of powers 
that no physical methods can reach. The apparatus of the 
chemist, the scalpel of the anatomist, the microscope of the 
minute inquirer, or the telescope of the astronomer, cannot be 
employed without displaying to us the results of Will, Intelli- 
gence, and Design; and yet it cannot be said that it is through 
them that we learn the primary truth concerning the Source 
and Origin of all the phenomena which Nature presents. An 


* La Vie et ses Attributs dans leurs rapports avec la Philosophie, U Histoire 
Naturelle et la Médecine, by L. Bouchut, Médecin de ! Hépital Sainte Eugénie. 
a ae agrégé de la Faculté de Médecine, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, 

ailliére, 


184 Organization and Life. 


inquiry into life requires the combinations of physical and 
metaphysical methods, because under the term life we include 
things which differ as widely as human emotion and the de- 
velopment of an egg. We say life is one, and we say nature is 
one, but we do not mean to assert that there is no difference 
between a granitic mountain and a shooting star, nor ought 
we to forget the distinction that separates the function of 
digestion from an impulse of the mind. To call life a principle 
is to place ourselves on the highroad to confusion, because we 
start with a definition which assumes a knowledge that we do 
not possess; and we moreover jumble together a variety of 
causes and effects. 

A principle means:a beginning of some kind. The principles 
of a science are those elementary facts and conceptions which 
form its foundation. In another sense, a principle is a first 
cause. We likewise find that principle is often used to signify 
not a sense, but a nonsense, and thus we hear of the “ electrical 
principle,” the “ caloric principle,” the “ vital principle,” or 
any similar phrase intended to give ignorance a learned look. 
If we take life to mean all the acts and properties exhibited by 
living beings, our first business is to separate them, and study 
each class in an appropriate way. ‘The phenomena that belong 
to physical science will have a physical cause for their appear- 
ance; and a physical cause is not a volition, or an intelligent 
power, but simply a condition, or assemblage of conditions, 
that are invariably followed by another state of things that we 
call an effect. If we ask why there is this invariable link be- 
tween certain antecedents and certain consequents, physical 
science cannot tell; and it is a metaphysical science that 
resolves the difficulty by pomting to that Intelligence which is 
the Great Cause of all. 

Those who are curious to study the history of opinion on 
the question of vital manifestations will find it ably traced in 
Barclay’s Infe and Organization, and it is interesting to note 
that, so early as Empedocles, a bold effort was made to avoid the 
confusion into which investigators are still apt to fall. According 
to that philosopher every animal possessed a rational and a 
sentient soul, the former derived from the gods, the latter from 
the four elements of which it was imagined that the universe 
was composed. In this rude hypothesis there is an attempt to 
separate the phenomena of organic life from those of conscious- 
ness, which we do not find in M. Bouchut, the latest writer on 
the same subject, who tells us that ‘ by vital force matter feels, 
moves, and assumes forms more and more complicated, from the 
creation of vivifiable organic matter to the most completely 
organized being.” ‘This same “vital force”? which has bewildered 
so many subtle heads, M. Bouchut considers he has “ de- 


Organization and Infe. 185 


monstrated ” to be “ extra-organic,” and he calls it “ an inter- 
mediary of the soul,”’* whose mysterious union with the body 
represents the entire being. Plunging thus headlong into con- 
jectural metaphysics, we are not surprised to be told that “life 
creates in each species of creatures the special organs that are 
to serve as the instruments of its activity. The functions create 
the organs, and after that all goes on by the mediation of 
physical laws.” We hope this learned Professor does not 
represent the condition of French intellect dwarfed by Napo- 
leonic despotism; but we read with astonishment his argu- 
ments to prove the strange theory we have announced: “ All 
vegetables and animals feel,” so runs the book, and they do 
this ‘‘ with or without organs of sensibility; they all breathe, 
but with different organs of respiration, from the plants which 
have no respiratory apparatus, and certain animals that breathe 
through all their tissues, up to insects which respire through 
tracheal tubes, fish that have gills, and birds and mammals 
that possess lungs.” ‘Here is a fact,” exclaims our author, 
“which proves against. those who contend that the organ 
creates the function; and it is infinitely more true to say that 
the function creates the organ.” Whether the animal be a 
symple polyp or a complicated man, the function is not per- 
formed until there is an organ to perform it ; the difference is 
that in the higher creature an immense advance has been made 
in the adaptation of a special structure to a special use. 

Hven apart from intellectual manifestations, it is clear that 
living beings do things that are not done by inorganic matter ; 
but we are not entitled to ascribe the whole assemblage of such 
acts to a “vital force,’ or some entity totally distinct from 
any physical force ; nor should we say that ‘ when once life is 
incarnated in matter, it produces effects which in their turn act 
as causes,” and so forth. Wecan trace the circumstances under 
which an animal lives, but, apart from religious ideas, we have’ 
not the faintest conception of why it lives, nor will physical 
science help us in the research. In his great work on Logic, 
John Stuart Mill remarks that although it would be an import- 
ant addition to our knowledge, “ if proved, that certain motions 
in the particles of bodies are among the conditions of the pro- 
duction of heat or light; that certain assignable physical 
modifications of the nerves may be the conditions not only of 
our sensations and emotions, but even of our thoughts; that 
certain mechanical and chemical conditions may, in the order of 
Nature, be sufficient to determine to action the physiological laws 
of life ;” still, ‘it must not be supposed that by proving these 
things, one step would be made towards a real explanation of 
heat, light, or sensation.” In the same spirit, Bacon warns us 


' © Intermédiaire de Ul ame, 


186 Organization and Life. 


“not to suffer the understanding to jump and fly from particu- 
lars to remote and most general axioms (such as are termed the 
principles of arts or things),”” and he adds, “ we must not even 
add wings, but rather lead and ballast to the understanding, to. 
prevent its jumping or flying, which has not yet been done ; 
but whenever this takes place we may entertain greater hopes 
of the sciences.” Had M. Bouchut followed the Baconian ad- 
vice he would not have told us that the “three attributes com- 
mon to everything endowed with life are, (1.) impressibility, or 
the unconscious faculty of feeling external impressions without 
any participation of the nervous system; (2.) corpuscular 
movement, automatic movement, or autocynesy, that is to say, 
the faculty possessed by the elements of living matter to move 
themselves in order to form species, and to do this without 
dependence on the properties of any structure ;* (3.) promor- 
phosis, or faculty of giving to amorphous elements a form de- 
termined beforehand, and conformable with the type of the 
species.” An “unconscious faculty of feeling” is not intel- 
ligible: a faculty or facility, for the words are the same im 
origin and meaning, can be neither conscious nor unconscious, 
and an unconscious feeling is no feeling at all. In describing 
the second alleged property of every living thing there is equal 
confusion. What is meant by the “ elements of living matter !”” 
Are the atoms of oxygen, carbon, and so forth, declared to pos- 
sess an automatic power, independent of the structure to which 
they belong, ‘to move themselves in order to form species”? 
“‘Impressibility” is affirmed to be “an attribute of hfe which 
exists in all tissues, which it animates independently of their 
textures.” The physiologist does not know lfe apart from 
some living thing, and when a writer addresses us like M. 
Bouchut he is substituting metaphysical guess-work for scien- 
tific fact. 

Life, as we know it, consists in actions that are obviously 
physical, and in operations that bear no analogy to any physical 
process. It is probably a complete mistake to represent life as 
controlling or resisting mechanical, chemical, or electrical forces. 
While an animal lives, its tissues are built up and taken to 
pieces according to a regulated method which is compatible 
with its continued existence, but all the physical operations of 
its life proceed in strict accordance with physical laws. If its 
albumen does not coagulate at a temperature that causes other 
albumen to undergo that change, it is not because a mysterious 
“principle” determines otherwise, but because the chemical 
conditions of coagulation exist in one case and not in the other. 
The power of maintaining heat is purely physical, and com- 
bustion follows the same laws in the body of the man as in the 


* «Hn dehors de toute propriété de structure.” 


Organization and Infe. 187 


furnace of the locomotive. The power of resisting heat is 
equally physical, resulting from evaporation and other processes 
which experimental science can trace. When the body is dead, 
the amount and direction of the forces is altered, and then, of 
course, the changes that ensue are of a different kind. It is 
incorrect to say that no change has taken place except the 
escape or departure of an immaterial principle. The nerves no 
longer transmit, nor do the nerve centres generate, those physical 
forces that determine the actions of structure that is alive. Mr. 
Lionel Beale discovers a complete circuit in the nervous system, 
strengthening the analogy with phenomena of an electrical kind. 
Other physiologists trace a connection between the consumption 
of phosphorus and the amount of thought performed by the 
brain. Here we have two sorts of incidents, the connection 
of which no physical investigation can elucidate. The changes in 
the brain, and in the secretions, no doubt, follow chemical and 
other physical laws, and are simply the results of the direction 
and intensity of forces of the same character as those which 
preside over the material world. They thus form fittmmg sub- 
jects for the research of the physiologist. But when we arrive 
at the question of why thought is connected with a brain, and 
why changes m the condition of that bram precede or accom- 
pany mental manifestations, our inquiry belongs to a totally 
different sphere. No polarization of particles, or oxidation of 
phosphorus can help us here. The ultimate cause is the will 
of Deity ; and if we seek for more we must do so in the direc- 
tion of utility, and correspondence with that great scheme of 
creation, of which so small a part is unfolded to our gaze. 

Let physical science give up the search for the why, and tell 
us how the universe proceeds. We start, and we conclude, 
with the conviction that an Intelligent and Benevolent Will is 
m all and over all, and in tracing the wonderful operation of 
what we call secondary causes, we exalt our conceptions of the 
only real Cause that animates and guides the mighty whole. 


188 The History of the Salmon. 


THE HISTORY OF THE SALMON.* 


Tue artificial breeding of fish affords an opportunity of resoly- 
ing many interesting questions in the history of certain mem- 
bers of the finny tribes, as well as the means of augmenting 
the supply of food. It is now miny years since Mr. Boccius 
introduced the system of pisciculture into this country, and 
although we are not able to affirm that salmon has become any 
cheaper in consequence of his exertions, there appears no reason 
why our most favourably situated rivers should not, once more, 
be well stocked with this much admired article of diet, or why 
ponds should not abound, in which humbler species of edible 
fish might be reared as a profitable article of trade. As neigh- 
bourhoods become populous, and a host of manufacturers settle 
down on the banks of romantic streams, it will become impos- 
_ sible to enforce any system of preservation, or to prevent the 
pollution of the water with some material inimical to piscine 
life. There will, however, remain for many years compara- 
tively secluded streams in which a very moderate expenditure 
of capital would ensure a large and remunerative stock of fish. 
The Stormontfield experiment is only a small one, but it 
has nevertheless led to important results. The scene of its 
operations is on the Tay, about five miles from Perth. Three 
hundted hatching boxes are arranged in parallel rows, with a 
walk or path between each. “The boxes are filled to within 
an inch or two of the top, first with a layer of fine gravel, next 
with one of coarser gravel, and lastly with stones as large as 
road metal.’? Before being put into the boxes, the deposits 
are freely exposed to sun and air to kill the larve of water in- 
sects that are very destructive to the fish, and currents of clean 
water from a filtering pond are allowed to flow freely through 
the apparatus when it is arranged. All being ready, a pair of 
salmon are captured to supply the spawn and the milt. The 
ova of the female are discharged in a tub by a suitable pressure 
and stroking motion of the hand. The milt is added in a 
similar way, and the water agitated to bring the two into con- 
tact. The impregnated spawn is then removed to the propa- 
gating boxes, and Mr. Brown tells us that the salmon colour of 
the ova is noticeably brightened when the milt comes into con- 
tact with them. This process goes on pretty quickly, so that 
in an experiment which began on the 23rd November, 1853, 
300,000 ova were deposited in the 300 boxes in the course of 


* The Natural History of the Salmon, as ascertained by the Recent Hxperi- 
ments in the Artificial Spawning and Hatching of the Ova for Rearing of the Fry 
at Stormontfield, on the Tay. By William Brown, Secretary to the Literary and 
Antiquarian Society of Perth. Murray and Son, Glasgow; Paton and Ritchie, 
Edinburgh; Hall, Virtue, and Co, London. 


The History of the Salmon. 189 


amonth. To settle the question of whether impregnation took 
place before or after the female deposited her spawn, Mr. 
Buist had one box filled with eggs to which no milt had been 
artificially applied, but not one of them hatched, although a 
similar batch to which the milt had been added soon produced. 
a goodly supply of young. 

: eS dallowine Sees of the hatching process will be read 
with much interest, although, to many of our readers, from the 
numerous accounts that have appeared from time to time in 
the papers, the information may not be new. Mr. Brown in- 
forms us that “on the 3lst March, 1854, the first ovum was 
observed to have hatched, which was 128 days from the depo- 
sition of the first, and ninety-eight days from the deposition of 
the last of the ova. A high or low temperature of the water 
will accelerate or retard the hatching ; ova have been hatched by 
us in sixty daysina constant temperature of forty-four degrees, 
but in the rivers of this latitude from 100 to 140 is the time, 
according to the season. We were furnished with a few ova, 
and by keeping up a supply of pure water, we were gratified 
by observing the little creature bursting the shell. The fish hes 
in the shell, coiled round im the form of a bow, and the greatest 
strain being at the back, it is the first part that is freed, and 
after a few struggles the shell is entirely thrown off with a 
jerk. ‘The appearance of this fish at this stage is very interest- 
ing ; what is to be the future fish is a mere line, the head and 
eyes large, the latter very prominent. Along the belly of the 
fish, from the gills, is suspended a bag of large dimensions in 
proportion to the size of the fish. This bag contains a yolk 
which nourishes the fish for six weeks, after which they must 


be fed.” When this bag is absorbed, the young salmon becomes . 


a “fingerlinge,”’ or parr, from an inch and a half to two inches 
long. The young parrs are permitted to enjoy themselves in a 
pond, and are regularly regaled with boiled liver of the ox or 
sheep ground small. Upon this diet they thrive, and in about 
a year reach the size of the parrs found in the river. 

In 1855 the first migration of the Stormontfield “ smoults” 
took place. ‘On the 19th May, Mr. Buist, becoming convinced 
that the fry had become smoults, 7. e. had taken on the silvery 
scales, caused a great many to be marked by cutting off the 
dead, or second dorsal fin, and turning them into the river.” 
The sluice was drawn, but they showed no desire to depart till 
tho 24th May, when a large shoal went off. ‘On the 7th 
July, 1855, the first marked grilse was caught returning from 
the sea, at a fishing station near the mouth of the river Harn, 
a tributary adjoming the Tay, a little below Perth. This grilse 
weighed three pounds, which was a large growth in so short a 
time, “as the weight of a smoult before it reaches the tidal 


rn 


190 The History of the Salmon. 


wave is from one to two ounces.” With reference to the time 
at which the character of the fish is changed, Mr. Brown in- 
forms us that one half go off the first year, and the other half 
remain in the pond; and, he adds, “‘ until the parr takes on the 
smoult scales, it shows no inclination to leave the freshwater. 
It cannot live in saltwater. This fact was put to the test by 
placing some parrs in saltwater, and immediately on bemg im- 
mersed in it, the fish appeared distressed, the fins standing stiff 
out, the parr marks becoming a brilhant ultramarine colour, and 
the belly and sides of a bright orange. The water was often 
renewed, but they all died, the last that died living merely five 
hours.” When the parr is covered with new scales it is ready 
for sea bathing. When it “‘ returns asa grilse, its scales came off 
with the slightest handling, and it is only when it returns as a 
salmon, or has been long enough in the sea, that the scales 
become rigid and firm.” 

Among the various experiments in marking the fish to re- 
cognize them at a future period, silver rings were employed, 
but the individuals thus decorated appeared peculiarly attractive 
to their enemies, and the method failed. Mr. Brown contends 
that the success at Stormontfield justifies operations on a much 
larger scale, and it appears that Mr. Ashworth and his brother 
are making extensive experiments in Galway. 

Among the natural history facts established at Stormontfield, 
we may mention, the proof that the parr is not a distinct fish, 
but the young of another fish, the salmon parr being the young 
of the salmon. It also appears that ‘the male parr is as fit to 
continue its species as the adult male salmon, but no female 
parr has yet been discovered with the roe developed.” Among 
the fry that assume the migratory dress during the first year, 
the two sexes figure in nearly equal proportions, but why some 
remain behind for another year has not been ascertained. 
“That the smoults return again to the river in which they were 
reared has also been proved by the number of marked grilse 
which have been caught in the Tay since the experiment com- 
menced. The experiment has also proved that the marked 
grilse of one year return as salmon the next, and we think it 
has also proved that all the smoults of one year do not return 
the same year as grilse, the one half returning the next spring 
and summer as small salmon.” 

We have selected from Mr. Brown’s work—all the more 
valuable because the information is carefully condensed—a few 
points of general interest; but we recommend all who are 
specially concerned, to consult its pages, as 1b contains a clear 
exposition of a subject of considerable economical importance, 
and throws much light upon many scientific questions im the 
history of the fish about which it treats, 


The Elm and tts Insect Enemies. 191 


THE ELM AND ITS INSECT ENEMIES. 
BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD. 


In a paper entitled “ Insects Injurious to the Elm,” by Mr. H. 
Noel Humphreys, which has appeared in this work (August, 
1862, p. 28), mention is made in somewhat approving terms of 
M. Robert’s proposal to disbark elm-trees, in order to recover 
them from the diseases alleged to be caused by the attacks of 
insects. Observations extending over many years, varied occa- 
sionally by direct experiments, have convinced me that the elm 
enjoys an almost total immunity from the attacks of insects, and 
that, therefore, the accusations made against Scolytus destruc- 
tor and Cossonus linearis are entirely unfounded, or rather have 
their foundation in a misconception of the facts. When so able 
a writer as Mr. Humphreys espouses Robertism, there is danger 
to be apprehended, and to avert that danger, I assert, in the 
first place, that neither Scolytus nor Cossus ever injure healthy 
trees, and that if they did so, the system of M. Robert would 
be more likely to hasten their death than their recovery. Mr. 
Humphreys has so truthfully and explicitly described the in- 
sects themselves, and their modes of boring and tunnelling in 
the tree, that there will be no occasion to refer to that part of 
the subject, except to point out the sources of error in the 
application of the facts. 

It may be as well to state that there is nothing new in the 
hypothesis which assigns the death of elm-trees to the ravages 
of xylophagous insects. 

There has been much written on this subject, and in nearly 
every case the writers have adopted arguments similar to those 
used by Mr. Humphreys, who, so far, is perfectly orthodox in 
concluding that as these insects are found in diseased elms, 
that therefore they are the cause of the disease. In the Hdin- 
burgh Philosophical Jowrnal, 1824, is an account by Mr. 
M‘Leay of the decay of elms in St. James’s Park, in which he 
attributes their destruction to Scolytus. In Curtis’s Illustra- 
tions of British Entomology, No. 11, is an admirable figure of 
Scolytus destructor, with a description in which the allegation 
of its destruction of elm-trees is repeated. In 1827 there was 
published in the Cambridge Chronicle (November 9), an account 
by Mr. Deck, of the decay of some elms in the front of Catha- 
rina Hall, in which he said—‘“their death has been decidedly 
occasioned by the ravages of a small beetle of the genus Scoly- 
tus, and of the species emphatically termed ‘destructor, ” 
An admirably written reply to this, by Mr. J. Denson of 
Waterbeach, appeared in the Magazine of Natural History, 1830. 


192 The Elm and its Insect Enemies. 


} The journals of more recent date abound with notices on the 
| same subject, and the discussion was reopened by a leading 
| article in the Times newspaper of the 30th January, 1862, 
wherein the procédé Robert was cautiously advocated as “‘ worth 
i a trial” in this country. 
i That Scolytus destructor does bore through the bark of the 
| elm and feed on the alburnum is not to be disputed. But let it 
HII be observed that the perforations are made in June and July, 
when the sap is in full circulation, and any small wound in a 
healthy tree heals over in the course of a few days. Let a 
healthy tree be then selected and bored with an instrument, so 
as to imitate as nearly as possible the action of the beetle. 
The experiment may be made still more complete by inserting 
| in the borings some small shot or beads, in the same way as the 
i insects deposit their eggs. In the course of a week or less it 
| will be impossible to find those artificial perforations unless the 
i part of the tree where they were made was marked for the 
| purpose, and when the marks are examined, it will be found 
. that the sap has deposited new material sufficient to close 
the perforations ; so that if, instead of shot or beads, real eggs 
of Scolytus had been inserted, those eggs would be her- 
metically sealed up, and nothing but a miracle would save the 
Hi larvee from perishing. I believe it can be proved to demon- 
| stration that the race of Scolytus destructor would he extermi- 
nated in one season were the female beetles so misguided in 
their instincts as to deposit their eggs in healthy elm-trees ; the 
| power of vegetation would annihilate the brocd by investing 
HH every cluster with vegetable tissue so dense as to cause their 
| suffocation, even if the eggs were hatched, and that event would 
Hy probably be as impossible as for the larve to eat their way 
Mit either in or out. But elm-trees die, and are found on exami- 
HAN nation to be freely mined by these insects, yet they attest in 
| their death that the insects were not the cause of death, and 
i another experiment will explain it. Cut down a healthy elm, 
| and the next season the root will throw up a forest of suckers. 
wit Ring a healthy tree, and unless it can form a new junction by 
| granular extension of the edges of the bark on both sides of 
HH | the ring, and on the upper edge especially, the same thing will 
HAN happen; in fact, a healthy tree will refuse to be extinguished 
Hi) unless assaulted above and below, and it is reasonable to con- 
Wil clude that ifan army of Scolytus, Cossonus, and Cossus were to 
| commence their ravages in a tree previously in full vigour, the 
ih diminished. vigour of the head would cause the roots to make 
| efforts at once to replace the head with strong shoots from the 
HE roots. But when trees are found in a state of decay, and 
HN apparently owing to the ravages of these insects, there is such 
| an absence of suckers and. offshoots, that in that respect they 


a 


The Hlm and tts Insect Enemies. 193 


differ as much from healthy trees of the same species as in their 
general decrepitude of stem and branch. 

But suppose we should for the moment grant that these 
insects sow the first seeds of dissolution in the life of the tree, 
will the procédé Robert recover them? In attempting an 
answer to this question we might discourse at considerable 
length on vegetable physiology, but there is no occasion, for the 
simple reason that we could say nothing new. M. Robert is 
said to strip the trees of their bark entirely, “the scolytus and 
cossuses are instantaneously annihilated, the trees throw out 
new layers of liber and even increase in bulk more rapidly than 
their mutilated contemporaries.”’—(Zimes, January 30, 1862.) 
If this is a correct account of the process, M. Robert is bold 
enough to strip the trees down to the cambiwm layer, which 
would no doubt clear away scolytes, leave cossuses untouched, 
and cause the death of the trees the same season. But we are 
very much of opinion that M. Robert has been misrepresented. 
In two letters addressed to us on the subject by M. Robert, he 
repudiates the idea of stripping a tree of its whole thickness of 


_ bark, and admits that such an operation must be followed by 


speedy death. He says, moreover, that he proceeds cautiously 
im removing vermin from the outer bark, and at the same time 
endeavours to renew the roots of the affected trees in order to 
promote a free flow of sap anda more active vegetation. More 
than this, M. Robert denies that he has had anything to do 
with those wretched elms that are to be seen in some of the 
avenues of Paris, tied with haybands, splintered up with 
barrel staves, and variously sliced and chopped about as if 
elaborately operated upon by means of a knife and fork.* 

We may come now to a more reasonable view of the case. 
M. Robert is said to have recovered thousands of trees. But 
this has not been done by “ flaying’”? them. He removes the 
outer layers of corky bark, which are often wholly occupied 
with colonies of insects. The removal of these may be of no 
immediate benefit to the tree, but the scraping away of the 
rough external bark without hurting the liber, to say nothing of 
penetrating to the cambium layer, has the effect of quickening 
the flow of the sap and improving the health of the tree, and 


* “Tes principales objections qui sont faites 4 mon systéme de traitement des 
arbres (scarified elm-trees), reposent sur une fausse interprétation. TI] est évident, 
que si j’enlevais l’écorce d’un arbre dans toute son épaisseur, ou jusqu’au bois, dans 
Pespérance de le sauver, je justifierais la comparaison: ‘An operation not much 
less bold in its own way than that of flaying a human being.’ Le reméde seroit, a 
coup stir, pire que le mal. Mais ce n’est pas ainsi que je procéde: je laisse, par 
un procédé quim’est propre, assez de tissu cortical pour prévenir l’accident qu’on 
semble redouter, tout en détruisant avec certitude les larves ou vers qui toute 
Vécoree renferme, et cela, progressivement, pendant la guérison de l’arbre.”— 
Liztract from a letter from M. Robert to the writer of this paper. 


194 The Hlm and its Insect Enemies. 


if the roots are aided by new soil and suitable nourishment, no 
doubt the trees are benefited, and by the same processes every 
good gardener would follow to remvigorate old orchard trees 
covered with rugged bark. 

But for this to be necessary, presupposes a state of disease 
or debility in the trees operated on. ‘This cannot be caused by 
Scolytus, which, as we have shown, not only does not, but 
cannot, attack a tree in full health and vigour. The tree first 
exhausts the soil in which it is growing, or some circumstance 
renders that soil no longer suitable forit. It begins to laneuish; 
the beetle then discovers that it is a suitable prey, and plays 
the part of scavenger, which is its proper office in the scheme 
of nature. ‘To Scolytus has been assigned the task of eating 
up dying elm-trees ; 1t never attacks a dead tree, never attacks 
a healthy tree, but riots in the elm when its reparative powers 
have already received a shock, and it is passing from life to 
death by atrophy. The appearance of Scolytus is a sign only 
that the tree has passed its heyday, then it may be possible to 
recover it by judicious treatment of the roots, and the removal 
of the epiphleum, or corky layer; but to leave the roots alone 
and strip it to the cambium, will be but to hasten the process 
which has begun already, and with which Scolytus has had 
nothing at all to do. In a grove of elms, one here and there 
will be found infested with Scolytus, but the rest are untouched. 
Did Scolytus origmate the diseased condition, all would be 
attacked alike, but it selects those that are in such a languid 
state, that when pierced for the deposition of eggs, they are 
unable to close up the small wound and entomb the larva in a 
mass of vegetable cells. There is one more proof for those 
who will observe for themselves, and draw conclusions from 
facts only. Whenever elm-trees seem to be decaying, it will be 
found that there is a pavement, ora hard pathway, ora drain, or 
something else over or near their roots, which prevents those 
roots exercising their nutritive functions in a normal manner. 
The elm roots near the surface; it likes a strong loam and plenty 
of moisture, and free access of air to its root fibres. When 
these conditions do not exist, or where, having existed, some 
change of circumstances has taken place, the trees will sooner 
or later decline m health, and when the process of internal 
decay has commenced, the insects peculiar to the elm take 
possession, and make a speedy finish of their work. The 
prudent forester will lay the axe at the root of an elm the 
moment he finds Scolytus in it, and take warning from the fact 
that the conditions of the soil are such that other elms must 
follow, unless, as M. Robert remarks, some attention be paid to 
the roots as the source of nourishment to the tree. 


Spiranthes Autwmnalis. 195 


SPIRANTHES AUTUMNALIS, » 
Neormia Sprrauis, or Ladies’ Tresses. 
BY L. LANE CLARKE. 


Scarcety perceptible to the careless eye is the modest beauty 
of this little orchid, the last of its family that will unfold for us 
this year the “ Manuscript of God”? concerning the orchis tribe. 

Deeply interested as all intelligent readers must be in 
Darwin’s delightful book, for the facts he has recorded, the 
study of the British orchids will henceforth be an ever-recur- 
ring recreation to the observant eye. 

First, in the early spring, the purple orchis mascula, and 
last, in the autumn time, this little white Neottia will again 
and again recall the wonder with which we first learnt the 
mysterious fertilization of orchids. 

Of the three thousand species Lindley has numbered, most 
varied and fantastic in form are the exotics; but scarcely less 
curious are the spider, the bee, the fly, and the butterfly 
orchids of our own woods and meadows, and a minute examina- 
tion of those which haunt our path will surely be acceptable to 
the intelligent observer. 

The Spiranthes autumnalis is now abundant in dry pastures; 
it is thickly dotted on the Malvern hills, on the hight pastures 
of the Isle of Wight, and the meadows and cliffs of the Channel 
Islands. 

The spiral cluster of small white flowers is so insignificant 
in appearance, that more than once I have heard the exclama- 
tion of —“ That an orchid?” Hyen so—gather one, and come 
and sée. 

It will require a microscope to discern all its beauty ; but a 
pocket lens will show us much, and we shall learn from this 
one specimen what it is quite necessary thoroughly to under- 
stand, before we can appreciate the discoveries of Darwin. 

The flower spike (fig. 1) is given natural size. The other 
ficures are all more or less magnified. 

In the single flower (fig. 2) we observe the plan upon which 
all orchids are fashioned, the number three ruling the plant, 
however modified by the Creator, “for whose pleasure they 
are, and were created.” Three sepals, three petals, three 
pistils, and twice three stamens. ‘These are not discernible at 
first, because the large lower petal, or labellum, is so promi- 
nent, and two upper petals are joined together, and one of the 
sepals adheres to them so closely as to require particular 
attention. 


Spiranthes Autumnalis. 


196 


SPIRANTHES AUTUMNALIS. 


Spiranthes Autumnalis. 197 


Of the three pistils, one is modified into a rostellum or 
beak, +; the other two are confluent, and form a cup, the sur- 
face of which is the stigma. This stigmatic surface, s, like all 
other stigmas, becomes at a particular moment highly viscid, 
attracting and retaining the pollen grains, which throw their 
granular tubes down the loosened tissue, to fructify the ovules in 
the ovary beneath, o. 

Six stamens, according to Lindley and Hooker, are Ge 
coverable in the perfect orchis ; only one fertile anther is appa- 
rent in Spiranthes, which now demands close attention. 

In examining a young Neottia with a pocket lens, and 
looking into the flower, we observe two pale yellow spots in the 
throat; these are the pollen masses or pollinia lyme under the 
anne: cell, a, and immediately over the stigma, s, attached to 
the rostellum, r, by a boat-shaped disk, in such a position as. 
to render it highly improbable that the pollen grains of that 
flower can ever touch their own stigma. If a needle is passed 
into the flower, and this disk touched lightly, it will detach 
itself, and with it the whole pollinia, as in fig. 5. 

This, on being pressed between thin glass under the 
microscope, will show the square or oblong pollen grains 
(fig. 6); or if applied to the stigmatic surface of an older flower, 
these bright golden grains will adhere to the glistening green 
cup, and be a beautiful object under a low power. 

Some flowers, if stripped of sepals and petals, as im fig. 4, 
will show the anther cell empty, the stigma untouched, the 
flower unfructified—where, then, is the pollinia ? 

This is Darwin’s discovery, that Spiranthes, ike so many of 
its brethren, is indebted to insect visitors for the perfecting of 
its seed, depending also on the movement of its labellum, which 
at one period closes the throat, and protects the young stigma 
until its hour of maturity has arrived, then drops slowly down, 
opening its honey glands to invite the wandering bee, which 
bears upon its proboscis the pollinia previously extracted from 
a younger flower. 

Resting on the sunny hills above Torquay, Darwin watched 
the intercourse between insect and flower. The little Neottia 
giving forth a sweet perfume to attract the living “ winged 
things ;” he saw the humble bee, as I have seen the hovering 
Syrphidz and Tipule, and small Hymenoptera enter the flower 
cup ; but these only entered one flower, and then flew away, I 
know not whither. Whereas he saw the bee always alight at 
the bottom of the spike, and, climbing up regularly, withdraw 
the pollinia from the upper and youngest flower, then fly to a 
next plant, rest for a moment on the labellum, which 1s moved 
aside, and whilst the insect sipped the nectar, the pollen mass 
was received by the expectant stigma. Then again mounting 

VOL. I1,—NO. Ill, P 


198 Comet IT. 1862. 


the spike, as the long and flexible proboscis was thrust into the 
scarcely opened flower, it could not fail to touch the sensitive 
rostellum, and bear away the disk and its pollinia. 

The experiment is easily tried, and you will find that once 
fertilized the stigma becomes dry, and will receive no more 
pollen. There is no waste in any of the works of God. 

For more minute details of rostellum and disk, we must 
refer to Darwin’s work, as the length of this paper is limited ; 
but I wish to observe that a section of the ovary is well worth 
looking at, also the seeds, like pretty netted purses, which con- 
tain the germ of the future plant, fig. 8. A portion of the 
cuticle also, from any part of the stem or flower, will show 
jointed and glandular hairs, giving a crystallized appearance to 
the surface of these parts. 

Fig. 7 is a mature ovary, with the withered sepals on its 
apex and the bract at its base. 


COMET II. 1862. 


BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, F.R.A.S. 


Arrrr the magnificent plume of the “ Donati,” and the bril- 
hant nucleus and wonderfully extended train of our visitant of 
last year, ‘ Comet IT. 1862” has possessed comparatively little 
claim to general attention; and even in the telescope several 
of the more interesting features of these most unintelligible 
bodies have been absent: but in such as have developed 
themselves, there has been much of an instructive character. 
There has been no well-marked separation of envelopes in 
the head, no dark channel like a shadow in the tail; but the 
emission of luminous matter towards the sun, and the hbrating 
or swinging motion discovered by Bessel in Halley’s comet in 
1835 have been so unequivocal as to be eminently worthy of 
study. My attention was early directed to these points, and 
in the following pages will be found such observations as our 
vapour-loaded skies have permitted, and the capacity of a 55 
inch object-glass has put within my reach. They may probably 
not be found in entire agreement with those made by other 
hands, and under other circumstances; and the student must 
be prepared for greater uncertainty in these matters than might 
have been anticipated. It is well known to all who have com- 
pared the records of cometary phenomena how variously their 
appearance is given by different instruments and observers ; and 


Comet II. 1862. 199 


ZEA = NS 
LLZ__—=SS 
LLL SAM7 


LN 


amit 


AN 
| 
ANU 


(| 
\ 


hi 
it 


200 Comet II. 1862. 


when even the comparatively well-marked features of Donati’s 
Comet have met with discordant delineation at the hands of 
such men as Struve, Bond, Secchi, Lassell, Dawes, and De La 
Rue, it cannot, in fairness, be expected that any set of repre- 
sentations should be found in perfect agreement with others, 
especially under unequal circumstances as to optical power and 
transparency of atmosphere. 

My first observation was on 

August 14, in strong moonlight; when the nucleus ‘al 
the aspect of a small star, with powers of 55 and 170, but 
became diffuse with 460. The coma was unequally distributed 
around it, being accumulated towards the sun; in this direc- 
tion a dim and ill-defined brush of light issued from the nucleus, 
which was not effaced with 460. The tail, which was short 
and faint, issued chiefly from the left (inverted) side of the 
coma, giving an irregular aspect to the head, as though the 
axis of greatest brightness made an angle of 30° or 40° with 
that of the tail. 

August 18. A clear night, but tremulous definition. The 
comet is a noble object in the comet eye-piece, power 27. The 
extent of the coma is very indefinite, but from a comparison 
with the diameter of the field may be put down at 15’. The 
tail can be traced with this eye-piece about 32, it rises from 
little more than one-half, or perhaps two-thirds of the coma, 
on the left inverted, or diurnally preceding, or orbitally follow- 
ing side; towards which side its edge is sensibly concave, as 
well as brightest and best defined. Its breadth at its origin 
may be 10’; at a distance of 1° from the nucleus, about 22’. Its 
structure is streaky some way from the head, but there is no 
central darkness. Nucleus stellar with 55, 82, and 110; 170 
begins to show a hazy border; 460 confuses it; its diameter 
may be estimated, very uncertainly, 1” or 2”. A ray issues 
from it to the left, not centrally or directly, but with a kind of 
twist at its origin, the nucleus being in a line with its lower 
(inverted) edge; so that we have a kind of reduced copy of the 
whole comet in its own interior. 27 shows this ray, but it is 
much more distinct with 55 and 82, and is still evident with 
170 and even 460. No clearly marked trace of an envelope, 
but something like a feeble sector of light, best seen with 27: 
the direction of the right side of the tail being assumed as 0°, 
its commencement may be fancied about 150°: thence it seems 
to advance, as to the vertex of a parabola, towards the sun ; 
receding on the other side, it encounters the ray at about 


210°, and is merged in the general light of the coma somewhere 


near 270°. All this is exceedingly indistinct ; but it is more 


evident that there is a difference of hue, giving a particoloured _ 


and patchy aspect to the head; the nucleus and ray being 


} 


} 


Comet IT. 1862. 901 


yellowish, the whole coma, but especially the sector, pale 
greenish-blue. The extent of the ray may be one-fifth of the 
radius of the coma. One micrometrical measure of position of 
tho ray, about 13h. gives 280°: at 10h. it had been estimated 
larger, perhaps 290°, but this was probably an illusion. Fig. 1 
is a rough sketch of the head. 

August 21. Haze and clouds; but m an interval comet well 
seen with 27 and 55. The whole is brighter; the sector more 
distinct and defined, especially to the left: the ray seems, 
however, somewhat less distinguished from the sector, and 
more divergent: measurement frustrated by gathering haze ; 
but I believe the position is much the same. 

August 22. A night of such great transparency and fine 
definition that the comes of 110 Herculis is pretty steadily 
visible. There has been a remarkable change. The nucleus 
is very small and faint, and, as it were, dissolved; barely star- 
like even with 27, and fading more and more with intermediate 
powers up to 460. The ray has become a kind of feather, 
shghtly curved, concave to the inverted right, having the 
nucleus at the quill end, and expanding at the other to about 
one-fourth of its length. Its position at 1lh.is, by one measure 
taken along the chord of its general curve, 250’, by a second, 
249°°5; the agreement being, of course, accidental in so nebu- 
lous an object. The nucleus seems to melt away into the feather, 
which springs directly and centrally out of it. The sector of 
last night is much altered ; anything beyond 27 is too high for 
the details of the coma; but it seems of feebler light beyond 
the end of the feather towards the sun, while a slight increase 
of brightness flanks either side of the feather, but is much 
more distinct and extensive on the left, on which side, how- 
ever, the light seems to be indented by a kind of little bay or 
inlet, between the end of the feather, and the furthest advance 
of the hght towards the sun. This brighter area, which may 
be an enlargement of the left side of the sector of August 18th, 
extends back towards the tail, till it reaches a very indistinct 
boundary, possibly a portion of a parabola in which the nucleus 
may stand, making an angle of perhaps 150° with the direction 
of the feather ; the area is terminated on the left by a distinct, 
though not defined, set-off of light, not effaced with 55, 110, 
or even 170, which appears to form one side. of a parabolic 
envelope ; a narrow dark channel is suspected beyond it, but 
cannot be verified. ‘The haze exterior to this set-off is suddenly 
and uniformly fainter; on the opposite side of the head nothing 
of the kind can be traced. The nucleus and feather are yellow, 
the surrounding light greenish-blue; but I think the contrast 
less marked than on August 18th. The diameter of the head 
is about 17, but extremely indefinite. The tail is now divided 


202 Comet II. 1862. 


by a darker interior space, much lighter, however, than the 
sky ; the separation commencing some way behind the head, 
and becoming more distinct in its progress. The right inverted 
branch is much the longer, narrower, and better defined, reach- 
ing certainly at least 34°, and possibly considerably further ; it 
seems concave to the right, not so perceptibly as before in any 
one field, but decidedly in the whole length (as to this, how- 
ever have subsequently become uncertain, from noting the 
deceptive effect of the motion of an equatorial mounting, placed 
very far out of the meridian). ‘The left branch of the tail is 
short, broad, comparatively famt, very ill-defined, and not 
extending more than 12° from the nucleus. As far as its light 
is tolerably distinct, it would seem, with the intervening 
darker space, to complete the perspective of a hollow structure, 
but beyond its termination, the other branch streams onwards 
so distinctly defined on both sides, and insulated on the dark 
sky, as to preclude any other supposition than that of separate 
existence; it is here 7’ or 8’ broad, and does not expand at all 
In its progress; the definition of its edges is remarkable. 
The coma is generally less luminous on the side turned from 
the sun, but there is no dark interval for a considerable 
distance behind the nucleus, and the origin of the tail is con- 
fused; the right branch seems to point to the nucleus and the 
brighter area to the left of it, as far as the set-off; the left 
branch appears to be a continuation of the left side of the 
coma, exterior to this boundary; so that the origin of the 
central darkness might possibly be referred to the dark channel 
supposed to adjoin this set-off, could its existence be verified ; 
this, however, is doubtful, as the region behind the head is filled 
with confused haze. The passage of the nucleus near several 
small stars is very striking. Muicrometrical measures of distance 
cannot be taken, in the absence of an illuminating apparatus ; 
and an attempt at estimation is subsequently found in error ; 
but fig. 2 gives something of the general effect. 

August 23. Very clear night. Another great change: the 
nucleus has become strikingly more brilliant, but not stellar, 
being undistinguishable from the commencement of a luminous 
arc, shorter, narrower at the further end, and less curved than 
the “ feather” of last night, but of so sharp and vivid a light, 
especially towards the nucleus, as to bear distinctly every 
power even up to 460. With a beautiful microscopic eye-piece 
by Powell and Leland, power somewhere about 3800, the 
nucleus could just, though barely, be distinguished at its 
end; it is very minute, and cannot exceed 1’. The wider 
extremity of the arc is less abruptly terminated than that of 
the feather ; its direction is obviously quite changed, and either 
the feather has retrograded through a considerable space, or _ 


Comet IT. 1862. 203 


has faded and been replaced by a fresh emission at another 
angle; the only reason for the latter supposition is that, in the 
position occupied by the feather last night, there is a cloud, 
very slightly more luminous than the surrounding coma, in 
which a similar form may be traced; this is visible with a 
moderate power, but with 27 it extends further, and reaches 
down to the arc, so as to recall the feeble sector of August 
18th, of which the faint cloud may form the most luminous 
part. It is possible that the nucleus may lie at the vertex, 
or in the course, of a parabola of haze, of which the left side 
may be traced in the drawing of last night, but this is un- 
certain; the set-off in the coma has faded so as to be barely 
perceptible: the colours in the head continue unchanged. The 
tail has closed up again so that the darker interior is filled in, 
and the whole looks narrower; the longer side is now much 
best defined on its right or external edge, the other being 
diffused in comparison ; it may be readily followed with the 
comet eye-piece through 34°, and, precariously, as far again ; 
both with this power and the finder it is seen to enlarge for 
some distance behind the head, and subsequently to taper off 
to a thin stream ; its general aspect in the finder is straight. 
Position of chord of luminous arc, measured about 10h. 5m. 
G.M.T. gives 279°; a little later, 280°; about 10h. 35m. 281"'5. 
Fig. 3 is a sketch of the head. 

August 25. Much cirrous haze, and. the comet, though 
evidently much brighter than heretofore, is probably never 
quite clear. Another great change is shown with 27. ‘The 
bright arc has totally disappeared, not a trace of it remaining 
with any power; and the feather has returned, in its previous 
form and position, being (9h. 15m.) the only perceptible feature 
in the head ; it is, however, longer than before, and with greater 
proportional breadth, about one-third of its length, and much 
less distinguished from the coma, which may possibly be con- 
densing towards the centre of the head. ‘The nucleus is so 
exceedingly faint as barely to be made out with any eye-piece, 
the feather being only a trifle brighter at the quill end, which, 
hke the other end, is broader than on August 22nd. 460 shows 
that either extremity is brighter than the centre; the broad 
end seems to occupy the exact position of the faint cloud of 
August 25rd. The edges of the feather are far less sharp than 
on August 22nd, nor do I think this, or the feebleness of the 
nucleus, chiefly due to our atmosphere, as the head is very 
brilliant, both with the comet eye-piece and to the naked eye. 
Measurement defeated by clouds, but position of chord of 
feather at 11h. 10m. guessed, very roughly, about 240°. See 
fig. 4, which represents only the centre of the head. 

August 27. Sky very hazy. Nucleus not distinguishable 


204 Comet IT. 1862. 


from the commencement of the feather with any power, from 
27 to 460. The jet itself is straight in its brightest part, but 
there is a faint effusion from it to the right, towards the end, 
where it is less vivid. 8h. 48m. position by a single, but careful 
measure, 240°. It has made a near appulse, a few minutes 
before, to a considerable star. 9h. 15m, I can make out the 
arrangement of the coma better in a darker sky with 82, and 
the impression of August 9th is revived, that the axis of 
luminosity makes a considerable angle with the axis of figure, 
or that the nucleus may lie some way to the left of the vertex 
of a very indistinct parabola of light. There seems to be a fee- 
ble indication of a renewal of the“ set-off”? or envelope. See 
fie. 5. 

Z August 28. Much cloud and haze, but the comet conspicuous 
in occasional clear openings. Feather very striking with 27; 
having returned to the appearance of the 25th: it is, however, 
decidedly a good deal longer, with the same proportionate 
width ; more curved, and less sharply defined, than before ; the 
centre being a very little famter than either end; a feeble 
branch from the nucleus towards the left beneath, suspected 
with lower powers, is confirmed with about 300. Nucleus 
very dim, even allowing for haze, barely visible with 27; sharp 
and stellar, but very minute, with 55 and 110; with 170 con- 
fused, and probably elongated in the direction of the feather. 
The general aspect is yreatly altered since last night: the 
nucleus was then the almost undistinguishable source of a 
vehement emission of light; now, it floats, an exhausted speck, 
in the end of a great cloud, with which its connection might be 
thought merely accidental ; 27 shows a slight darkness to the 
left of the end of the feather, in the axis of the general structure, 
recalling the observation of August 22nd. ‘The colours and 
magnitude of the head remain unchanged, but the tail is much 
altered; there is little difference in the finder, but in the comet 
eye-piece it is much more divergent, spreading over 25’ to 30, 
1° behind the nucleus ; the two sides are very unlike ; the right 
is still for a short distance the better defined and stronger, 
resembling the edge of a hollow structure, but there is nothing 
corresponding on the other side, which is feeble and diffuse, 
and there is no appearance of central obscurity. For 1° or 
more, the right side is somewhat convex, but it grows rapidly 
faint, and is soon blunted or rounded off towards the axis ; 
further on, the old straight narrow stripe may be traced, and 
presumably in its original position, but it is now much more 
feeble; it may reach 4° or 5°, but its length is quite uncertain, 
as 1S a Suspicion that it may be on the whole concave. What, 
however, is undoubted, and very remarkable, is that the brighter 
side at its origin is no longer directed towards the nucleus, or 


1 
F| 
; 


Observations on Comet LT. 205 


near it, but much further outwards; it seems, in fact, to be one 
branch of a parabola, whose vertex lies exterior to the feather, 
though much within the coma next the sun, and corresponding, 
perhaps, on the other side, with the line of the old set-off, of 
which, however, no trace remains. Measurement impracticable 
from clouds, but position of chord of feather estimated about 
250°. See figs. 6 and 7, the latter on a much smaller scale. 

A succession of cloudy weather unfortunately terminated 
this series of observations at a time when they possessed the 
greatest interest, from the combination of a recent perihelion 
passage, subsequent to which the sun’s influence is found to 
attain its maximum upon comets, with the nearest approach to 
the earth. Some remarks and deductions, aided by comparison 
with the more valuable observations of others, are reserved for 
a future opportunity. 

Our readers will not fail to take every opportunity of study- 
ing the phenomena of Mars ; the snows of his S. pole, and 
the curious configurations of his surface. 

Only two occultations are visible at Greenwich during the 
month of October, and those at convenient hours. 


OBSERVATIONS ON COMET II. 1862. 
BY THE HON. MRS. WARD. 


THE second comet discovered in this year* has passed into 
southern skies, having, while yet above our horizon, faded away 
from unassisted sight. It made its nearest approach to the sun 
on August 23rd, and to the earth on August 30th, having been 
visible to the naked eye—visible, that is to say, where the state 
of the weather admitted of any heavenly body being observed, 
from about the Ist of August. 

Those who viewed it on one of the calm clear evenings 
between the 23rd and 30th of that month may have seen it, 
much as in our Plate, at a conspicuous height im the heavens, 
the broad pale head seeming somewhat to surpass in size any 
of the larger fixed stars in its neighbourhood, but to yield in 
brightness to many of the smaller ones, while the tail, trans- 
parent and filmy, scarcely as evident as any part of the Milky 
Way, almost faded from view as one gazed at it, and seemed 
best recognized by slightly averting the eye. Yet no one could 
for an instant glance at the starry heavens, and fail to see it 
was there. 

Such, I think, is a fair description of Comet II. The cir- 


* Comet I. was discovered by M. Schmidt on July 2nd, and for a few days 
was faintly visible to the naked eye. 


206 Observations on Comet IT. 


cumstances under which it was observed were favourable rather 
than the contrary. It remained during nearly a month in that 
part of the heavens where the stars, as viewed in our latitudes, 
do not set, from their nearness to the Pole; it came, not in 
the twilight mights of midsummer, but at a time when five 
hours of real darkness could be reckoned on; and above all, 


ACEP HIE me 
estrcnsocerer ff 


4 e ° oF ee ee g @ p) SE. we 
4 a / &. : 4 rote Steir 


gino, dinlns | ee cNWELOPARD AY, 
Sod oi 5 


aan ‘a 
Ree ene, ee Sy 
. Feioin as : 
Bo! PENS E 
ox LPs Sale / BOOTES 
x ee 8 oA o8 
ett ig ay 7E ea ; 
) of 
Corer bs Beas e ifhoaly ake 
ae ) A e <—o 
‘ Antares , 9 LIBRA, Cee rns 0) ee 
SscoRPIO AO OE ESE EEE CN RUM ee Sie VIRGO 


Fie. 1.—Plan of the Apparent Path of the Comet during 


nearly the whole time 
in which it has been visible. 


the moon was absent during the greater part of the comet’s 
best fortnight. 

But I doubt not that many an intelligent circle of observers 
have felt somewhat discontented with Comet II. They have 
emerged from the more genial glare of a moderateur lamp “ to 
see the comet,” and, baffled in attempts to view its lofty posi. 
tion from a window, have scanned it out-of-doors, and I fear 


Observations on Comet II. 207 


have agreed among themselves that it was “not worth the 
trouble of looking after”? May we arrest some such party of 
observers, and ask them to pursue the subject of comets with 
us during a few pages? till perhaps the general interest of the 
theme may lead them to reconsider their verdict, and welcome 
every comet for the opportunities which it affords for the eluci- 
dation of problems interesting from their very difficulty. 

The comet which we have just seen, has come, as all con- 
Spicuous comets, with one remarkable exception—Halley’s 
Comet—have come, unexpectedly, and unforetold. It was dis- 
covered, independently, by at least three observers,* about the 
third week in July, as a faint, hazy comet, discernible only in 
the telescope. In the same manner, Comet V. of 1858, better 
known as “ Donati’s Comet,” was discovered. Others have 
escaped notice till detected with the naked eye. No sooner 
however is a comet seen, than the work of prediction begins. 
The comet is subjected to a most rigorous inquiry. The 
elements of its orbit are roughly calculated, and improved as 
observations accumulate, by a multitude of ardent and expert 
computers. Old records are ransacked, and old observations 
put into tangible shape, so as to rescue from oblivion the orbits 
of ancient comets which present any similarity to that of the 
new visitor.t Then, the comet’s probable changes of apparent 
position and brightness for several weeks to come are estimated, 
with a degree of minuteness which might well lead the unin- 
structed to suppose that the stranger must have been con- 
fidently expected for a long period. 

Halley’s, as we have said, is the one conspicuous comet 
_ which was really expected. Its appearance in 1758 had been 
foretold by Halley many years before. It came punctually, 
and was again promised for the year 1835. Those who re- 
member the announcement of its approach in the almanacs 
which came out at the end of the year 1834, and who subse- 
quently saw the comet in the following October, are likely to 
have obtained a strong impression of the degree of regularity 
to be found among the movements of these strange wanderers. 
Nor is Halley’s the only comet which has been observed to 
return, although no other visible to the naked eye has done so. 
There are six comets, visible in the telescope, and known as 
the ‘‘ comets of short period,’ which have several times re- 
turned at the calculated dates, and again retreated from view. 
They are remarkable for the smallness of their orbits which, 
notwithstanding their elliptical shape, are entirely included in 


* These were Mr.'Tuttle, at Cambridge, in America, on July 18th, MM. 
Toussaint and Pacinotti at Florence, on July 22nd, and M. Rosa at Rome on 
July 25th. 

t Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy, art. 597. 


208 Observations on Comet ITI. 


that of Neptune. The period of these six comets vary from 
about three years and a quarter—that of the comet known as 
Encke’s—to seven years and a hundred and sixty-three days, 
that of Faye’s Comet. The probable returns of other comets 
have been foretold, but the day of fulfilment, in many cases, is 
far away ; centuries, or even thousands of years hence. 

Is then so little known, it may be asked, about each comet 
which appears? Have they not then the interest which belongs 
to the planets as known and established denizens of the solar 
system ? Rather say they have a very special interest of another 
kind. : 

A comet—speaking in a general way—is composed of head 
and tail. There is a large ill-defined mass of light called the 
head, which is usually much brighter towards its centre, offering 
the appearance of a vivid nucleus like a star or planet. “ From 
the head,’ I quote Sir John Herschel, “and in a direction 
opposite to that in which the sun is situated from the comet, 
appear to diverge two streams of lght, which grow broader 
and more diffused at a distance from the head,” and these com- 
monly uniting into one mass of filmy ight, and extending to an 
immense distance, form the comet’s tail. This is not a matter 
of seeming. It is not merely that the brightness fades away 
from the region of the nucleus to that of the tail; the nucleus 
forms the tail, and subsequently retains a control over it, and 
this, says Mr. Bond, in his valuable account of Donati’s Comet, 
“is one of the most curious phenomena presented in nature.” 

When a comet approaches that part of its parabolic or 
elliptical path which brings it nearest to the sun, some extra- 
ordinary phenomena begin to be observed im the region sur- 
rounding its nucleus. The nucleus (sometimes becommg sud- 
denly brighter than before) throws out a jet of light towards 
the sun, which jet, though bright at its pomt of emanation from 
the nucleus, fades rapidly away, and becomes diffused as it 
expands into the “coma,” or head. Another and another jet 
succeeds ; and each, while expanding in the coma, curves back- 
wards, as if impelled by a force of great intensity directed from 
the sun. And thus the comet’s tail is formed. These strange 
phenomena, though observed in the cases of the great comet of 
1811 and of some others, were first noted with minute attention 
by the illustrious Bessel in the case of Halley’s Comet in 1835. 
The very night on which these wonders first manifested them- 
selves was also signalized by the commencement of the tail of 
that comet. It is impossible (says Professor Grant) to doubt 
that this appendage derived its origin from the nebulous matter 
which had been in the first instance raised from the head by a 
force directed to the sun, and was subsequently impelled by a 
powerful force in the opposite direction. 


Observations on Comet IT. 209 


Again, in the case of Donati’s Comet, the nucleus, about a 
fortnight before the day of its nearest approach to the sun, 
might be plainly observed to throw out faint rays of hght to- 
wards that luminary. At Rome, on September 16th, 1858, 
M. Rosa (one of the discoverers of Comet II.) observed two 
divergent streams of light shot out from the nucleus of Donati’s 
Comet. These proceeded for a short distance towards the front 
of the coma, then abruptly turned backwards and streamed into 
the tail; and M. Rosa compared them to long hair when brushed 
upwards from the forehead, and then allowed to fall on each 
side of the head. Six days later they had given place to a fan- 
like bright sector (or semicircular disc of light). On the 27th, 
this “fan” appeared more spread out. On the 30th, the fan 
still continuing, a new set of phenomena began to appear. A 
succession of luminous hoods or “ envelopes” were observed, 
like canopies over the nucleus from which they had been 
emitted, and these too ultimately streamed back into the tail. 

The reader must not suppose that this streaming motion 
was visible to the eye. Taking into consideration the great 
distance of the comet, a movement of a thousand miles a day 
(such as, for stance, was observed in one of those strange 
“ envelopes” of light) could not be detected as motion, though 
sufficiently evident in its effects. Thus Bessel, watching Hal- 
ley’s Comet, with unremitting attention during one long night 
in October, from sunset to sunrise, was rewarded by seeing a 
jet from the nucleus describe in that time an arc of thirty-six 
degrees; and Bond was able to observe the germs of the 
“envelopes” at the surface of the nucleus, and to trace them 
through successive stages to their full development. 

Such changes, then, varying in detail, but bearing a con- 
siderable general resemblance in all bright comets which have 
been closely watched with the telescope, go on before the eyes 
of astronomers; but meanwhile, the cause of them remains ao 
profound mystery ; nay, more, they are seemingly in defiance 
(says Mr. Bond) of the best established properties of matter, 
the laws of gravitation and inertia. Here he speaks of the 
developments observable in the comet’s own physical structure. 
With regard to the motion of comets in space, there the laws of 
gravitation do hold good; but, strange to say, it is the nucleus 
alone which moves in obedience to the attractive force of the 
sun and planets. “Immense volumes of matter,’? continues 
Mr. Bond, ‘apparently of the identical substance of the nucleus, 
go to compose the enveloping nebulosity and the tail, but 
from the moment of leaving the central body, their motion is 
perfectly imexplicable, without assuming them to be under 


the influence of laws of force, which greatly modify that of 
gravitation.” 


210 Observations on Comet II. 


But I pause, for I fear the younger members of the party 
who have so patiently listened to the tale of ‘‘ enveloping nebu- 
losity,” “‘ gravitation,” and “inertia,” may tire of the recital. 
Shall we try a lighter stram,—a sort of short-hand or bird’s-eye 
view of the subject ? 

Here, let us say, is a comet. Let us take Halley’s Comet; 
for although possibly some of our other celebrated comets have 
come just as punctually, there were no Halleys or Newtons two 
or three thousand years ago to predict them... Here, then, is a 
comet which has obeyed the sun during seventy-five long years, 
coming back at last, and showing becoming deference on its 
way to Jupiter and Saturn, by lingering a little as it passed 
them by; here it comes, steadily and solemnly, when lo! a jet 
of light, apparently similar to itself, darts forward with force 
sufficient to overcome the motion which it must have had as 
a part of the comet’s small, hard heart; strange enough, but 
stranger still, it soon tends backward, in opposition to both its 
original pace and its newly achieved outburst. Backward it 
streams, with what enormous force, and to how extraordinary a 
lencth! A comet—I could give name and date—emitted a 
tail sixty million miles long in two days; and the same 
comet brandished said tail in the manner of a straight and rigid 
rod, right round half a circle, in the space of two hours! im 
defiance of all received laws. It was seen to do it; eyes were 
not deceived, for the eyes of Newton saw it, and similar feats 
have been recorded since his time on the part of successive 
comets. 

So, as we gaze after little Comet II. and wish it a long fare- 
well, we say to it, with half-admiring perplexity, “ You belong 
to a strange family ; ; in part you obey our laws, and in part you 
are influenced by quite a different code—shall we ever under- 
stand you better?” 

And not far from such thoughts are more solemn feelings, 
of deepest reverence for Him unto whom all his works are 
known, from the beginning of the world—who sees beautiful 
order where our limited senses seem to behold confusion, and 
who reigns supreme alike over the army of wenn and among 
the inhabitants of the earth. 

I shall now trace the story of Comet II., so far as observa- 
tions have hitherto been reported to me. Discovered first in 
Kurope, July 22nd, it appears to have been concealed from the 
view of astronomers by adverse weather till near the end of the 
month, when Mr. Romberg observed it at Leyton, near Lon- 
don; its appearance through the telescope being that of a 
round nebula, strongly condensed in the centre.* On August 
1st he observed the tail; Mr. Crumplen also saw it at Huston 


* Letters to the Times. 


Observations on Comet IT. 211 


Road, noting a dark appearance down its centre, and estimating 
its length at about a degree and a half. On the same evening 
M. Bulard saw it at Algiers, and M. Littrow at Vienna. On 
August 3rd it was viewed by various astronomers, among them 
Mr. Dawes, who was struck with the remarkable distinct- 
ness of the nucleus.* He noted that on the side farthest from 
the sun its edge was hard and sharp, but that on the side next 
the sun “a condensed stream of nebulous matter issued from 
the nucleus, gradually expanding itself, and at length falling 
back on all sides, and becoming mingled with the general coma 
of the head.” “The whole appearance,” he adds, “ strongly 
reminded me of a fountain, ascending to a moderate height, 
and then falling over on all sides in fine spray.” 

Fig. 2, though belonging to August 15th, seems well to 
illustrate this description. It represents — 
the comet as seen in an inverting tele- |i 
scope. The jet of ight is also noticed by 
the other observers on August 3rd. On 
the 5th, Mr. Dawes observed similar phe- 
nomena; but truly remarks that about 
this time the sky usually presented an 
aspect more like December than August. 
Nevertheless, a few notes were made on 
the 7th by other astronomers. Professor 
Challis observed an approach to the form 
of a sector in the bright central portion of the coma, and he 
noted that the right border of the comet’s tail seemed brightest 
when seen in the telescope. 

Mr. Howlett, F.R.A.S. (to whose kindness I am indebted for 
the figures which illustrate this part of the narrative, as well as 
for much mformation concerning the comet), first saw it on 
the 14th, and took the above sketch on the 15th, at nine p.m. 
On the early morning of the same day, Mr. Hind estimated 
the comet’s brightness to the naked eye, as being about equal 
to Gamma in Ursa Minor, and the tail three degrees in length. 

Meanwhile, I had enjoyed no single view of the comet. For 
a whole fortnight I had vainly watched to see even a single star 
winking through my large staircase-window. But late on the 
17th, a starlight night came at last; I then, to make up for 
past disappointments, watched the comet carefully from mid- 
night till half-past one. I knew where to look, from the cal- 
culations which had appeared in the Times, and at once saw 
the “woolly appearance ” which had been familiar to my eyes 
in the case of the great comet of 1861, in its last days of feeble 
visibility, I could not see the tail with any certainty till I 
viewed it with the telescope ; then it became visible, but not to 

* London Review, August 16th. 


Fig. 2. 


212 Observations on Comet IT. 


any great distance from the head. The whole head was de- 
cidedly brighter than the tail, and I noticed aremarkably round 
effect in its shape, and also that in some way the comet’s east- 
ern side was somewhat better defined than the western. I 
imagined a sort of curve in the comet’s general shape, but the 
whole object was so faint that I could not define what its form 
might be. 

I saw it next on the morning of August 20th, at four o’clock, 
but only to observe it fade in the daylight shortly after the dis- © 
appearance of Htain Ursa Minor ; again, however, in the evening 
I saw it well ona black sky, its tail now tolerably visible, though 
short, and through the telescope displaying a streaked and 
unequal appearance. I thought the head not so much brighter 
than the tail as it had appeared on the night ofthe 17th. 

Meanwhile, some friends at Florence had observed it on the 
16th. Even there, adverse weather had frequently concealed it 
from view, and when seen on the 16th, the tail was barely per- 
ceptible. 

: Mr. Howlett furnishes me with the 
annexed sketch of the comet (fig. 3), as 
observed on the 19th, accompanied by the 
following note :—“ Observe the very strik- 
ingly partial method of the development 
of the comet’s tail, which was almost ex- 
clusively confined to the eastward of the 
imaginary line joining the nucleus and 
iu Zeta Ursa Minoris, towards which I could 

| trace it on the 19th instant, at eleven P.m., 

RISE for eight degrees. At this time the pre- 

ceding luminous jet appeared to me to form an angle of about 

168 degrees with the general direction of the comet’s tail.” 

Mr. Howlett also remarks—“ What a contrast the appearance 

and form of the comet presented, as drawn respectively on the 
15th and 19th instant.” 

I should here perhaps explain that my reason for employing 
Mr. Howlett’s drawings in preference to my own (which strongly 
resemble them), is, that the telescope which he employs, being 
three and a quarter inches aperture, brings out the delicate de- 
tails of the comet with more completeness than I can expect from 
mine, which is an inch less in aperture; and his plan of draw- 
ing is likely to ensure much correctness. He doesnot make his 


‘sketches literally at the telescope, bemg impeded by the well- 


known obstacle in the way of representing faint objects by 


night, namely, the difficulty of seeing the object in the greater 


brightness of the lamp used to throw light on one’s drawing. 
He first obtains a good general idea of the comet by carefully 
viewing it with an opera-glass or an eye-piece of thirty dia- 


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Observations on Comet IT. 913 


meters, to ascertain the direction of the tail, and also of the jet 
from the nucleus, and having carefully observed these particulars 
for about a quarter of an hour (the telescope beimg out of doors), 
Mr. Howlett, re-entermg his house, marks them down by 
slichtly scratching on black paper with a penknife, the paper 
being supported on a pane of glass, and held before a lamp, 
which renders the slightest scratch at once apparent. He then 
repairs to the telescope, applies a higher power, generally 120, 
and earnestly scans the comet till some new feature is fully im- 
pressed on his mind. Then he returns to the lamp, and very 
carefully notes down what he has seen. Sometimes ten minutes 
are employed in making sure of a fact, and as long a time in 
fitly representing it. Thus the drawing goes on till completed. 
Any scratch de trop is rectified by a little thick ink applied 
to obliterate it. These transparencies represent nearly the whole 
comet ; but except in my tinted plate, | have copied only the 
head of each. 

My own plan, though as different as might well be, I am 
inclined to think is also very efficient. I place my telescope on 
a table out of doors nearly opposite a window. Inside the 
window stands a lighted candle, and in front of it a powerful 
condensing lens (belonging to my microscope), placed at that 
precise distance from the candle that it casts a narrow stream 
of light to a great distance. I have a piece of card or paper 
and a pencil on my table, and when I choose I can place the 
paper in the brilhant light from the lens without allowing the 
glare to reach my eye. My drawings, being done in pencil, 
represent stars by black dots, and the brightest parts of the 
comet by the darkest shading, but I frequently copy them at 
once in imitation of the real appearance. 

Perhaps the two plans could be combimed, and the black 
paper and lamp conveyed to the open air; only that comets 
take us by surprise, and we hastily improvise a plan, mstead of 


losing time by making many experiments. 


On the 19th, Mr. Dawes also observed the comet, and notes 
that the nucleus was no longer so singularly sharp and distinct 
as on the 3rd. From this time, the weather appears to have 
improved,and many observations have reached me; but space per- 
mits me to give few besides my own and those of Mr. Howlett. 

The comet, on the evening of the 21st, appeared to me as a 
conspicuous and beautiful object. The texture of the tail seemed 


streaky, as on the 20th, appearing like folds of the most deli- 


cate gauze. The nucleus and jet of light reminded me of the 

shape of a shuttlecock, the feathers turned to the right and 

sloping downwards, and surrounded by a bright glare of light. 

Its changed its aspect in a fitful manner, or at least appeared 

to me to.do so. I do not know that this fitful appearance was 
VOL. I1.—NO. II, Q 


214 Observations on Comet II. 


real, and not caused by weariness of the eye; I only know that 
nothing of the kind ever occurs when I am engaged in examin- 
ing the nebula of Orion; and on this evening any fixed star 
which I observed continued sharp and unchanged as long as I 
looked at it. 

This was the only occasion on which I observed either by 
the telescope, or with the naked eye, any momentary variation 
in the comet’s appearance. Something of the kind, however, 
appears to have been occasionally observed by others. ‘All of 
us,’ writes my correspondent at Florence, “have remarked 
that the hght of the tail varied, and seemed at moments to dart 
upwards in a stream from the nucleus, somewhat like an aurora 
on a small scale.” Similar to this was an appearance observed 
at Versailles in the case of Donati’s Comet, but strongly and 
vividly marked, like everything connected with that glorious 
phenomenon. The narrator, Dr. Montucci, states that, in Sep- 
tember 1858, he, in company with another person, saw the 
comet suddenly fade away, tail, head, and nucleus—the nucleus 
disappearing a few seconds after the rest. For upwards of a 
minute (and this happened in clear weather), not the slightest 
vestige of the comet was visible, and then ‘ the nucleus, so to 
say, caught fire again, and the superb tail shot out again in a 
blaze lke a sky-rocket.” This whole affair occupied about five 
minutes, and occurred five or six times in the same evening. 
It was also observed on subsequent evenings.* <A similar 
phenomenon, as far as the disappearance of the tail goes, was 
observed on July 4th (by a correspondent of the Morning 
Herald), as occurring with the great comet of 1861. 

Such appearances are referred to also by Mr. Hind in his 
treatise on I'he Comets. ‘There is,” he says, “one singular 
appearance in the trains of great comets which we must not 
pass over in silence. It consists of apparent vibrations or 
coruscations, similar to the pulsations peculiar to the Aurora 
Borealis. These vibrations commence at the head, and appear 
to traverse the whole length of the tail in a few seconds of 
time. ‘The cause was long supposed to be connected with the 
nature of the comet itself, but Olbers pointed out that such 
appearances could only be attributed to the effects of our own 
atmosphere.” This kind of movement is recorded as having 
been observed in the tails of comets in 1607, 1618, 1652, and 
1662, and, more recently, in that of 1769, and the great comet 
of 1843. Should another remarkable comet appear, the ob- 
servation of this phenomenon would be an important employ- 
ment for those who observe principally with the naked eye ; 
and I would say to them, “‘ You cannot view a comet too ear- 
nestly, too carefully. It hangs there, apparently an established 

* From the Comptes Rendus of the meee of Sciences. 


Observations on Comet IT. Zils 


ornament of the heavens, yet i how few days it will have gone 
away, and as far as you are concerned, for ever !” 

On August 22nd, the comet showed well—I thought it 
curved decidedly ; my idea was that the tail set out from the 
head as if to slope to the right, then suddenly bent to the left, 
and thenceforward was straight. Mr. Howlett also saw the 
comet well in England (fig 4). He makes the following note :— 
“On August 22nd the jet from the nucleus (the nucleus was 
very faint) appeared to me almost in a straight line with the tail. 
I did not observe anything of the fan-shaped appearance which it 
has simce assumed. <A pretty group of five stars from the 
seventh to ninth magnitude probably, was on that evening to 
be seen near the head of the comet. One of these, about 
3’ 40” to the eastward (following side) 
of the nucleus, was quite immersed 
in the coma, which just skirted upon 
two other small stars on its preceding 
margin. The tail, as seen here’ 
(in Kent), “500 feet above the sea 
level, appeared about seven degrees 
in length.” 

Unfortunately, neither Mr. Howlett | 
or J succeeded in seeing the comet on = : 

August 23rd. It would have been eRe 
satisfactory to have been able to record its appearance on 
that evening, as it then gained its nearest point to the sun. 
Professor Challis saw it at Cambridge, but speaks of having 
found the night less favourable for observation than he could 
have wished.* Mr. Chambers, at Eastbourne, was more for- 
tunate. He noted that the jet of light was inclined to the 
direction of the tail by an angle of about sixty degrees; and 
by five different measures he estimated the tail at twelve de- 
grees in length. 

On August 24th Mr. Howlett obtained a fine view of the 
comet (see tinted Plate). He makes the following note :—“ The 
nucleus had thrown out a very conspicuous and broadly fan- 
shaped jet. The west side was the most sharply defined, and 
seemed to me very nearly in a line with the general direction of 
the tail, which latter I could trace for about eight degrees in the 
direction of Hta Draconis. The coma appeared to me at this time 
to be cleft, as it were, or at least to exhibit a rather marked defi- 
ciency of luminosity in the north-east quadrant, which greatly en- 
hanced the fan-shaped appearance of the jet.’ Mr. Chambers’s 
note for the same evening is :—“ The sector or jet of light has 
greatly increased in amplitude. It now covers fully 120° of a cir- 
cle.” The tail, he says, extends nearly or quite to Eta Draconis 


* London Review, September 6th. + English Churchman, September 28th. 


216 Observations on Comet IT. 


His observations were made with an excellent refractor, aper- 
ture three inches, and powers employed from 21 to 120. 

On August 25th, Mr. Howlett obtained another good view 
of the comet, fig. 5. He says :—‘‘The deficiency (that is of 
luminosity in the N.H. quadrant) seemed to be filled up again, 
but the western edge of the jet was far from being in a right 
line with the general direction of the tail, forming with it, 
indeed, an angle of some 160° towards the west side.” 

On this evening I was able only to obtain a momentary 
glimpse of the comet between clouds; I had but time to note 
its position and to remark that it was very white and brilliant. 
But on the next evening (26th) I had 
my best view of it. I began to look 
for it while Arcturus and Vega only 
were clearly visible, and the Ursa Major 
stars to be made out with great diffi- 
culty. I could not, however, detect 
it till the latter were all bright, except 
Delta. ‘Then the comet showed and 
decidedly brighter than Delta. It 
increased in brilliancy as evening ad- 
vanced, and its tail seemed to reach as Fie. 5. 
far as 16 in Draco (see tinted Plate). I thought it nearly as large 
as Donati’s in the days immediately preceding September 30, 
1858, but far from being as bright. It was more like the subdued 
hght shown in the well-engraved view of the comet of 1819 in 
Herschel’s Treatise on Astronomy. I thought the comet’s tail 
of considerable breadth at its extremity, and was pretty sure of 
a decided line of light to the left. 

My view through the telescope was not satisfactory, for the 
sky began to cloud over as I concluded my general scrutiny of 
the comet’s appearance, The nucleus and jet of light seemed 
small and somewhat long. 

On the 27th the sky was overcast here, but Mr. Howlett 
saw the comet clearly, and, as he afterwards told me, the tail on 
that evening appeared longest to him, 
namely, thirteen degrees. His drawing 
of the head, fig. 6, is accompanied by the 
following note :—‘‘Some very pretty 
groups of minute stars were now to be 
seen involved in the tail and coma. 
One was about 4’ N.H. of the jet. 

The tail, he says, “ was concave on 
its orbital preceding side.” He also 
: thought it somewhat deflected at its 

Fie. 6. extremity towards the north-east. His 
next view was on the 30th ; but meanwhile I had seen the comet 


Observations on Comet IT, 217 


to considerable advantage on the 28th and 29th. On the 28th 
the comet’s head appeared to me to be large rather than bright. 
I could compare its apparent size (to the naked eye) with that 
of Alpha in the Northern Crown, but its degree of lustre with 
some far smaller star. I believed the tail to be of a broad and 
fan-hke shape, and to extend as high as Htain Hercules, but in 
excessive faintness. Very different in this respect from Donati’s 
Comet, the curve of which I could compare, I remember, with 
one cut out in paper, and held over its brilliant “ preceding 
margin,” in rather close proximity to a candle. 

In the telescope I noticed that the nucleus had no star-like 
appearance whatever, but with the jet presented the appearance 
merely of a long and cloudy patch of ight. There were some 
picturesquely placed stars in the field of the telescope, to the 
left of the comet ; and having noted their places accurately on 
paper, | was much surprised and interested to observe how 
rapidly the comet neared them. I had observed them first at 
about nine in the evening, noticed their change of place at ten, 
and had completed my notes of the comet’s appearance more 
than an hour later, when it occurred to me to take out the tele- 
scope again, and ascertain how far the comet might have accom- 
plished its transit across those stars. It had actually (at twelve 

mM.) left the stars far to its right, and two bright stars which I 

had thought too far off to introduce in my first sketch were now 
below the comet, lookmg about as near it as the stars Hta and 
Zeta in Auriga do to the star Hpsilon, as seen by the naked 
eye. On the 29th, though the evening was very fine, and all 
the sinuous windings of the Milky Way distinctly shown, I felt 
sure the comet was not so clearly visible as on the 26th, when 
any one could at once see its tail, even through a glass window. 
On this evening, though I put all candles and lamps out of sight, 
I failed to see it through that window otherwise than as a pale 
and rather large fixed star. 
- In the open air it was better, the tail showed faintly, and I 
still thought I saw a slightly more decided outline to its left than 
its right side. The telescopic view was rather good. The head 
stood out well from the black sky, and on this evening the 
nucleus was bright. I wished very much for a sight of 1% 
through the most suitable instrument possible. The roundness 
of the head. was striking, and one could have almost supposed 
there was no tail,—that part of the comet being so much fainter 
than the head, and also somewhat narrower. 

On the 30th, between drifting clouds, I caught sight of the 
comet, most picturesquely placed as a temporary ornament of 
the Northern Crown, and felt with what a new interest these 
passing comets. invest our old familiar constellations. 

Mr. Howlett’s last transparency was made on this evening 


218 Observations on Comet IT. 


(fig. 7). He thus describes the comet :—“ The tail that even- 
ing appeared to me much more uniformly 
distributed, and the jet, which was now 
directed towards the western or preced- 
ing orbital side of the nucleus, was pretty 
sharply defined on the same western mar- 
gin, but feathery on the eastern side, 
where, too, the coma was chiefly con- 
densed.”’ 

Mr. Howlett quite corroborates my 
observation, that the comet had dimi- 

Fig. 7. nished in briliancy and length of tail 

since the 26th and 27th. He observed it 

again on the dist, but was not able to make a sketch of it. He 
could not trace the tail to a greater distance than three degrees. 

No further observations have reached me; but I was myself 
able to view the comet on Sept. lst, 2nd, 7th, and 9th. On 
the Ist, moonlight began to concealit. The moon, however, 
set at ten o’clock, and I could then observe a very decided di- 
minution in the comet’s brightness. On the 2nd the moon 
did not set till after the comet had disappeared along with the 
stars of Serpens, behind some trees; and in the bright moon- 
hght the comet had not seemed more than a round “ woolly” 
star. 

On the four following evenings the sky was overcast. On 
the 7th, a day before full moon, I had lost my account of the 
comet’s probable place, but, nevertheless, gave myself a task 
to detect it. In one minute I found it out, and then made sure 
of 1t with the telescope. A yellow star was in the same field of 
view. The comet appeared small, and of a roundish shape, but 
not at all regularly circular. There was no visible nucleus, but 
a perceptible brightness about the centre; no tail whatever. 

On September 9th I saw it for the last time. 

There was very bright moonlight, in which even the stars 
Epsilon and Delta of Ophiuchus were not very readily visible. 
Trees hid Antares, but I could guess at its position, which with 
that of Beta (in Scorpio) helped me to ascertain the comet’s 
probable situation. Long staring at the sky, I imagined a pale 
spot a little way north of Beta. On this I fixed my telescope, 
and very plainly saw the comet, faint and small on a light grey 
sky; yet there was a look of some importance in its aspect, 
giving one the idea, that had moonlight been absent its tail 
would still have been visible. 

I looked long at it; the ideas of retreat, disappearance, and 
a long parting impressing themselves very vividly on my imagi- 
nation as I removed the telescope, leaving Comet II. to pursue 
its long mysterious journey. 


1 eS * 


Observations on Comet IT. 219 


P.S.—Sept. 18th. Two days after my concluding observa- 
tion of the comet, namely, on September 11th, my friend at 
Florence had an interview with M. Toussaint of the Observa- 
tory there, who, with M. Pacinotto, had been a discoverer of 
Comet II. M. Toussaint kindly lent for my benefit three 
bulletins received by him from M. Chacornac, of the Paris 
Observatory, saying that they contained a full statement of par- 
ticulars relating to Comet II. M. Toussaint added, verbally, 
the following remarks; that he had observed two branches in 
the comet’s tail, the right (when viewed without inversion) 
beimg shortest. Fig. 8, copied from his diagram, shows the 
relative lengths of the two sides of the tail. 
Fig. 9 represents merely the head of the comet, 
as sketched by him to illustrate his description 
of its telescopic appearance, showing the nu- 
cleus, the flame which projects towards the 
sun, and the surrounding 
vapour. 

The report of M. 
Chacornac will, doubt- 
less, be read with inter- 
est. He was one of the 
most successful observers 
of Donati’s Comet, hav- 
ing frequently watched 
that remarkable object 
from the time of its 
rising, after midnight, 
till daylight rendered it 
invisible. I should mention, that in my transla- 
tion I have always employed the word “‘aigrette” 
where he has used it, and that the word “jet” 
is also transcribed without alteration. With 
this short preface, I commend to the readers of 
the InrettectuaL Oxsrrver these bulletins from 
Paris, which have certainly reached their new 


destination by a somewhat circuitous route—via Italy and 
Ireland, | 


Fie. 8. 


220 Appearance of Comet II. at Paris. 


APPEARANCE OF COMET II. AT PARIS. 


NOTE FROM M. CHACORNAC, 


THE second comet of this year, now visible near the Pole, pre- 
sented to view, on the morning of the 10th and 11th of August, 
a luminous aigrette, analogous to that which was observed in 
Halley’s Comet at the time of its last appearance. The sector 
was much more brilliant than the rest of the nebulosity, and 
turned towards the sun. Its amplitude was forty-six degrees 
at three on the morning of the 10th; on the 11th, at ten 
minutes past two in the morning, the amplitude proved to be 
sixty-five degrees. Thus this sector widened, like that of 
Halley’s Comet, as the nucleus approached the sun. 

Besides this alteration, which might be compared to the 
expansion of the corolla of a convolvolus, the eastern branch of 
the sector which, on the morning of the 10th, was the most ex- 
tended and briliant, and which measured an arc of forty-five 
seconds, exhibited only a rudimentary form on the morning of 
the 11th. The western ray, on the contrary, became developed, 
and subtended an angle of sixty-three seconds, and its bright- 
ness surpassed that of the eastern ray. 

On the 10th, the nucleus presented the aspect of a fusee 
(“d'une fusée”’), that is to say, it had a much longer diameter 
in the direction of the radius vector than in that of the perpen- 
dicular. The proportion of these two diameters was as one to 
three. I had not hitherto observed the nuclei-of comets to be 
lengthened in this direction. The great comet of 1858, and 
that of 1861, both exhibited the contrary phenomenon; the 
lesser diameter of their nuclei were towards the direction of 
the radius vector. 

On the 11th, this aspect had much diminished, and the two 
diameters of the comet’s nucleus approached equality. No 
certain trace of polarized light was visible in the nucleus; and 
still less could it be detected in the hght of the sector. 

In short, the appearance of luminous expansion in the 
form of an aigrette directed towards the sun, presented by 
Halley’s Comet, and which had already been observed. by 
Heinsius in the head of the comet of 1744, are not exceptions 
peculiar to the nature of those comets. The great comet of 
1858, that of 1861, and even the last comet of short period 
which has appeared, have presented luminous expansions, 
which I have observed, and which may be compared to a 
vaporous jet directed towards the sun, and forced to retreat by 
an action emanating from that luminary. 

This comet, which now presents to the eye a brilliancy equal 
to that of a star of the fifth magnitude, and may be expected 


Appearance of Comet II. at Paris, 221 


to become ten times brighter, will probably offer appearances 
which will assist in the study of the physical constitution of 
these bodies. 


SECOND NOTE FROM M. CHACORNAC, ON THE SECOND COMET 
OF 1862. 


In continuing to describe the changes which have occurred in 
the present comet’s head since the 10th of August, 1t may be 
said that four distinct aigrettes have become disengaged from 
the nucleus by a succession of phenomena, analogous to those 
which were seen in Donati’s Comet at the time of the disen- 
gagement of its envelopes. 

When a new aigrette is about to be developed, the nucleus 
of the present comet assumes an elongated form, in the direc- 
tion of the radius vector, and its extremity, turned towards the 
sun, is terminated by a feeble tuft, (‘‘ houppe”’) which gives it 
the aspect of a burning torch. Some hours later, the nucleus 
extends in the same direction, and the part facing the sun 
becomes more diffused in enlarging. Next day, a long ray, 
which may be compared to those observed around the sun at 
the moment of a total eclipse, may be seen turned towards that 
luminary, but no longer following the direction of the radius 
vector ; it deviates therefrom by a certain angle, opposed to 
the proper movement of the comet. Other rays, of about half 
the size, visible on each side of that first mentioned, complete 
the aigrette. ‘The nucleus, then, is seen as a clearly-defined 
luminous centre, occupying the apex of the cone formed by the 
aigrette. These objects being sufficiently well-marked in out- 
Ime, can be perceived through the vast nebulosity which 
envelops them; and from this nebulosity escape feeble particles 
of cometary matter, which go to form the tail, in the direction 
opposite to the sun. 

Later, the outlines of the rays and of the aigrette become 
less clear, and the principal ray continues to be inclined on the 
axis of the tail in a direction opposed to the movement of the 
comet, in the same shape in which a flame is inflected when 
exposed to a current of air. 

While thus inclining, the ray augments the amplitude of 
the aigrette. When it comes to form an angle of only about. 
100 degrees with the then direction of the tail, it is extremely 
diffused, enlarges along with the aigrette, and their much- 
weakened light becomes confounded at the borders with that of 
the nebulosity. Then the nucleus again becomes oval; a new 
ray, a new aigrette are prepared to pass successively through a 
set of phases similar to those we have just described. 

Thus, from the 12th to the 17th of August, we have seen 
three rays and three aigrettes detached from the nucleus, . 


222 Appearance of Comet IT. at Paris. 


To give an idea of these luminous expansions turned to- 
wards the sun, we may state, that the principal ray measured 
on the 17th, towards eleven o’clock in the evening, an angle of 
two minutes. That is to say, it extended beyond the nucleus 
over a space four times greater than the diameter of the earth. 

On the same evening, the comet presented to the eye the 
appearance of a nebulous star, of a brightness nearly equal to 
that of the star Gamma in the constellation of the Little Bear. 
Nevertheless, the tail, on account of its dimness, could scarcely 
be distinguished to the length of a degree. 


THIRD NOTE FROM M. CHACORNAC ON THE SECOND COMET 
OF 1862. 


THE comet continues to present interesting phases in the 
development of its aigrettes. 

In attentively following the form of the jets which escape 
intermittently, I have just remarked a fact still more strange 
than those described in the preceding notes. In the latter I 
pointed out that one of these jets or rays, darted firstly in the 
direction of the sun, was afterwards turned aside in a direction 
opposed to the movement of the comet, so that on the next day 
it could be observed making an angle with the direction of the 
previous day (“‘ avec la direction de la veille’’). 

The fine weather which has lately come having permitted 
me to follow during whole nights the mode of transformation 
of different vaporous jets which have been disengaged from the 
nucleus, I will recount the phenomena in the true order of their 
succession. 

Firstly, it 1s necessary to say, that the ray of the previous 
day, directed nearly to the sun, was not that which one saw 
next day inflected in a direction opposite to the movement of 
the comet; the latter was a new ray emitted by the nucleus in 
this very direction. 

From the 17th to the 20th of August, pondering on the 
forms presented by the rays, alternately rectilinear and clear, 
or curved and diffused, I already felt doubtful of the identity of 
these two jets; but, following the opinion of Bessel about Hal- 
ley’s Comet, I believed in some analogous movement of the 
aigrette of the present comet, all its other phenomena seeming 
to confirm this analogy. 

Three nights in which the sky was completely overcast, left 
me in this belief. On the 22nd of August, the sky having 
again become clear, I persevered from nine in the evening till 
four next morning in following the slightest variations per- 
ceptible in a jet directed to the sun, and I believe I have de- 
tected its true nature. 

In the night from the 25th to the 26th of August, having 


Appearance of Comet II. at Paris. 123 


been able to repeat the observation on another jet which I also 
saw again on the evening of the same day, I give a summary 
which will truly interpret the phenomena. (“‘ Voici sommaire- 
ment quelle serait la véritable interprétation des phénoménes.”) 

The nucleus of the comet emits in the direction of the sun 
a vaporous jet, whence seem to escape particles of cometary 
matter as a jet of steam escapes from a machine. This jet pre- 
serves, during a certain time, a rectilinear form, which seems to 
indicate a considerable force of projection emanating from the 
nucleus. Soon afterwards it bends shghtly, and presents the 
appearance of a curved cone, bearing much resemblance to a 
horn of plenty, as usually represented. At this time the gaseous 
particles accumulate at that extremity of the jet nearest to the 
sun, under the form of rounded clouds; and this appearance 
seems to indicate that at this distance from the nucleus the 
force of projection is conquered by a resistance which is opposed 
to it. 

Some hours later, this luminous jet takes a diffused aspect, 
and shows that the nucleal emission has ceased to go forth in 
this direction. At the moment when it commences to change 
its form, and at an angle of position inclined about thirty de- 
grees towards the east, the first traces of a new ray may be 
seen, its development presenting the same phenomena as those 
which preceded it. Sixteen hours later, in the direction of 
those first traces visible on the previous day, may now be ob- 
served a new ray, and this latter continuing in this interval of 
time to lose shape (“se déformer”), appears dispersed in the 
hemispherical envelope like a fog, scarcely preserving any traces 
of its original form and direction. 

In its successive transformations this new ray offers in the 
sequel the same appearances as that parallel to the radius vector. 

Since the epoch of the comet’s perihelion passage, the jet 
which nearly corresponded to the radius vector inclined gradually 
westward to that point to which the other ray tended on the 
30th of August, precisely in the direction opposite to the tail 
of the comet. 


224 Application of Dialysis to the Preservation of Building Stones. 


APPLICATION OF DIALYSIS TO THE PRESERVA- 
TION OF BUILDING STONES. 


THE discoveries of Mr. Graham regarding the process of dialysis 
were described in a paper by Mr. Tegetmeier in our last volume. 
The prognostic of the speedy application of the process to the 
useful arts has been rapidly verified in a practical application 
of very considerable interest. 

The ease with which, by the aid of dialysis, solution of 
silica (flint) of almost any strength can now be prepared, has 
suggested its use as a cementing material for binding together 
the particles of porous and perishable stones, and other similar 
materials. This application was originally proposed by Mr. 
W. Crookes, but it has been found that there are some draw- 
backs to its employment. ‘The flint solution, in many cases, 
gelatinizes on the surface of the stone, and, drying up, scales 
off, bringing with it the outer particles of the stone surface. 
Mr. A. H. Church, whose researches on the formation of certain 
silicious minerals we have already noticed in the INTELLECTUAL 
OxzsERVER, has improved this process so as to obviate its defects. 
He attains this result by the use of a solution of baryta in the 
first place, the flint solution being applied afterwards ; in some 
cases where the nature of the materials to be operated upon 
requires it, the order of application of these solutions is reversed. 
The effect of the completed process is very marked. Porous 
stones become almost non-absorbent ; their hardness is greatly 
increased, and their liability to injury from atmospheric in- 
fluences, almost, if not entirely, removed; brick, terra-cotta, 
and many other materials are likewise rendered nearly water- 
proof, while plaster of Paris casts are greatly improved in 
durability and appearance by this treatment. 

The rationale of the process is very simple. The successive 
application of solutions of baryta and of silica causes the de- 
position within the substance of the stone of the insoluble and 
unalterable silicate of baryta; no soluble, and therefore un- 
necessary and injurious, salt being produced, as is the case in 
other processes for the preservation of stone from decay. 
Where, for instance, silicate of soda and chloride of barium are 
successively applied, not only is silicate of baryta formed, but 
also an equivalent proportion of chloride of sodium or common 
salt. By the washing out of this soluble compound by the 
action of rain, the continuity of the protective coating is im- 
paired; and if the salt be not removed more serious con- 


sequences may ensue by its crystallization, deliquescence, or 
efflorescence. 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 225 


PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 


BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 


ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 


New Cotrorrera FRom Cocuin Cutna.—The discoveries of M. 
Mouhot in Cambodia and Cochin China were described at page 240 
of our first volume, in the account of the meeting of the Geographi- 
cal Society held March 10. 

Since that date M. Mouhot has fallen a victim to his scientific 
exertions, a circumstance which gave a melancholy interest to the 
grand collection of Coleoptera, many new to science, which he had 
obtained from the mountains of Lao, in Cochin China, and which 
were exhibited by Mr. Stevens. Mr. A. Wallace exhibited a new 
and very admirable plan of mounting small Coleoptera and other 
insects on slips of thin transparent gelatine in the place of card; 
the advantages being twofold, firstly, that the use of gum is un- 
necessary, as the insect adheres firmly to the moistened gelatine; 
and, secondly, that the underside of the insect is readily examined, 
as the gelatine may be obtained in sheets which are perfectly trans- 
parent and colourless. This latter advantage is one of no slight 
importance in those cases where only single specimens of rare insects 
are contained in a collection. 

On the same evening Mr. Smith exhibited a singular specimen 
of the common hive bee, Apis Mellifica. The head had the peculiar 
form and large eyes of the drone or male, and the legs and wings 
of the right side were also those of the drone. 

The left side, however, was that of a neuter or common worker, 
whilst, as if to complete the singularity, the sting was straight, re- 
sembling that of the fertile female or queen bee. 


Insect Frying UNDER WatEr.—September 8. Mr. John Lubbock 
showed a small British Hymenopterous insect, not more than a line in 
breadth, which had been captured swimming under water by means 
of its wings. Ithad been determined to be one of the Ichneumons, 
the Polynema fuscipes. Little is known of the habits of this insect, 
and it is difficult to account for the circumstance of one of a para- 
sitic group bemg found in such a situation. Mr. Lubbock had 
ascertained that it was able to lve four hours under water with- 
out the necessity of coming to the surface to breathe, but that if a 
number were submerged for a longer period, as during a whole 
night, they were found dead in the morning. There was nothing 
in the external structure of the insect that would have suggested 
an aquatic habit had it been captured out of water. In those birds 
that fly under water, as the black Guillemot and common Razorbill, 
the wings are always very small in proportion to the size and weight 
of the birds, and have consequently to be used with great rapidity 
and without intermission when the animals are flymg in the air, 


226 Gleanings from the International Exhibition. 


This shortness, however, renders them admirably fitted to a sub- 
aqueous mode of progression. In the Polynema fuscipes, however, 
the wings are of full size in proportion to the insect, a circumstance 
that renders its peculiar habits more remarkable. 


GLEANINGS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 


Frog in Brock or Coat.—We have much pleasure in stating. 
that the earnest protest we entered against the exhibition of this 
absurdity has had its desired effect. Shortly after the publication 
of our last number calling attention to it,a letter appeared in 
the Times signed P.; which was generally attributed to a most 
eminent Metallurgist and Professor at the Government School 
of Mines, repeating the objections we made. Since then others 
of an equally indignant character have been published. Whether 
the Commissioners who have so generally mismanaged the Exhibi- 
tion would have removed the animal we are not aware; but the 
difficulty was suddenly brought to a conclusion by its death. 


Live Animats tv THe Exurpsrrion.—In the original announcement 
issued for the guidance of exhibitors it was distinctly stated that no 
live animals could be exhibited in the collection; without giving 
any notice to those exhibitors who wished to show the specimens 
of the new Ailanthus silkworm, Ligurian bees, and other domes- 
ticated insects, the Commissioners allowed a few exhibitors to 
show live animals, thus, two exhibitors of bee-hives were so 
favoured. 

The frog above alluded was another exception; but, perhaps, the 
most useful animals in a living state are those contained in a glass 
in the Victoria court; we allude to the Australian medicinal leeches. 
These from their colour are obviously a distinct species from our 
officinal animal, and as they appear unusually hardy, having per- 
formed the voyage from Melbourne in distilled water, they might, 
perhaps, be successfully acclimatized inthis country. Their hardihood 
may be judged from the fact, that only four out of a large number 
have died during nine months since they were captured in Victoria, 
and that since they have been in the Exhibition they have commenced 
breeding, having produced cocoons. 


Dearur’s PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MOooN, AND OF THE GreEAT Sonar 
Ecurpse.— It may be in the recollection of many of our readers that 
a corps of astronomical observers amply provided with instruments 
visited Spain at the period of the great Solar Kclipse of 1860, in 
order to make and record observations during the passage of the 
Moon over the Sun’s disk. Mr. Delarue, accompanied by a strong 
staff of photographic assistants was of the party; and the very large 
and valuable photographs showing the various phases of the eclipse 
are the results of his journey. All persons at all interested in astro- 


Gleanings from the International Hxhibition. 927 


nomical studies should avail themselves of the opportunity of 
inspecting these valuable records, which enable the most transient 
phases of the phenomenon to be studied with a degree of careful 
attention that would be impossible but for the aid of photography. 


DEVELOPMENT OF THE Human Bopvy.—Dr. Liparzik exhibits a series 
of beautiful models by Francis Miller, illustrating the gradual deve- 
lopment of the human figure from birth to adolescence. These mo- 
dels show the results of many thousand observations and movements, 
and are extremely valuable to physiologists, educators, and artists. In 
connection with this subject there should also be noticed the valu- 
able series of models of Dr. Roth, shown in Class29; these indicate 
how the normal development of the body may be most surely 
obtained by the aid of gymnastic actions, and apparatus designed to 
exercise each part. In addition to these valuable aids to healthy 
development, Dr. Roth exhibits specimens of shoes and other 
articles of clothing which do not produce deformity by exerting 
undue pressure on any part of the body. The hygienic value of 
these garments is very great. 


Mopets or Burnpines.—Amongst the more remarkable models of 
buildings in the Exhibition may be mentioned that of Lincoln 
Cathedral made nearly from 2,000,000 old corks by an agricultural 
labourer ; though not made accurately to scale, this model is remark- 
able for its correctness, and is a good instance of the great amount: 
of work that may be accomplished by persevering industry during 
leisure hours. 


The model of the Cathedral of Milan in the transept is executed 
by a professional designer, and is accurately made to scale, being 
carved in soft wood; it is, perhaps, one of the most exquisitely 
finished models ever constructed, showing tne exact character of even 
the smaller carvings in the original edifice. 


Srnemne Macuine in tae Austrian Court.— The singing 
machine has not maintained the opinion that was expressed respect- 
ing it before its exhibition. It is not properly a singing or articu- 
lating instrument, but should rather be described as an organ with 
a vox humanus stop. 


228 Notes and Memoranda. 


NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 


RAMSAY ON THE GractaL OriGIN oF Laxers.—In a paper which will be 
found in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for August, 1862, 
Professor Ramsay gives reasons for considering that the great Alpine lakes, such 
as Geneva, Zurich, Constance, Maggiore, Lugano, Como, and others, “do not lie 
among the strata in basins merely produced by disturbance of the rocks, but in 
hollows due to denuding agencies that operated long after the complicated foldings 
of the miocene and other strata were produced.” He remarks that none of these 
lakes lie in simple sinclinal troughs, and that in no case of lakes among the Alps 
is it possible to affirm that we have a sinclinal hollow, of which the original upper- 
most beds remain. After showing the objections to various theories of the forma- 
tion of the lake hollows, he observes, ‘‘ Now, if the Lake of Geneva do not lie in 
a sinclinal trough, in an area of subsidence, in a line of fracture, nor in an area of 
mere aqueous erosion, we have only one other great moulding agency left, namely, 
that of ice.’ He then shows that “when at its largest, the great glacier of the 
Rhone debouched upon the miocene beds where the eastern end of the Lake of 
Geneva now lies.” It was ‘about 2200 feet thick when it abutted upon the 
mountains, and when it first flowed out upon the plain at the mouth of the valley 
of the Rhone, the ice, according to Charpentier, must have been 2780 feet thick. 
Add to this the depth of the lake of 984 feet, and the total thickness of the ice 
must have been 3764 feet at what is now the eastern part of the lake.” ‘I con- 
ceive, then,” he adds, ‘that this enormous mass of ice, pushing first N.W., and 
then partly W., scooped out the hollow of the Lake of Geneva most deeply in 
its eastern part, opposite Lausanne, where the thickness and the weight of ice, 
and consequently its grinding power, were greatest.” He applies similar reasoning 
to other Alpine lakes and to the great lakes of North America, also to lakes in 
Cumberland and Scotland, and elsewhere. 


GEIKIE ON THE Last ELevatTion oF CrnTRAL Scotzanp.—In the same 
journal, Archibald Geikie, Esq., of the Geological Survey, describes the evidence 
he has obtained, to show that a “ portion of the coast of the Firth of Forth has 
been elevated not only within the human period, but. even since the first years of 
the Roman occupation.” 


Burning GunrowpEeR In Vacuo.—M. Bianchi lays before the French 
Academy his experiments on the combustion of gunpowder in a vacuum. He 
found that this substance, and also the fulminates, burnt guickly if loose in an 
exhausted vessel, and suddenly brought to a temperature exceeding 2000°. If, 
however, the powder was placed under similar circumstances in a pistol, it in- 
flamed with the suddenness exhibited in the air. Gun cotton slowly disappeared, 
the layer nearest the source of heat going first, but without the production of any 
light. In all these cases the products of combustion were the same as in air. 
Combustion also took place in nitrogen, carbonic acid, and other gases which do 
not support it, and there was little diminution of the ordinary rapidity of the 
process. 


CurE For Hoorine Coveu.—Dr. Joset states that infusion of wild thyme 
effects a cure in this troublesome complaint. 


ARTESIAN WELLS IN THE DESERT OF ALGIERS.— Cosmos informs us that in 
five years terminating with 1859-60 fifty wells have been sunk in the Algerive 
Sahara, capable of yielding 36,761 litres of water per minute. 30,000 palms and 
1000 fruit-trees have been planted. Numerous oases have been recovered from 
ruin, and two fresh villages established. The expense has not yet reached 
298,000 francs, and has been covered by a slight additional tax, and by voluntary 
contributions from the Arabs. The water is slightly saline, and a little bitter 
from the presence of Epsom salts, but it is not found to be unwholesome. 


THE Consanguinity ConTRovERSY.—M. Beaudouin communicates to the 
French Academy an account of his “‘ breeding in and in” with a flock of three 
hundred sheep without any apparent ill effect ; but in this as in similar cases, the 
alliances between the two sexes were strictly regulated, and all weak and unde- 


ere ein a are 


Notes and Memoranda. 229 


sirable animals were excluded. In one case, during a period of twenty-two years, 
a sheep was born in this flock exactly reproducing the primitive type. M. 
Beaudouin agrees in the main with M. Sanson, but observes that he generalises 
too fast when he says that the inconveniences attributed to consanguineous con- 
nections have no foundation in observation. ‘ Weshould add,” observes M. Beau- 
douin, ‘‘ when such unions take place between selected individuals.” M. Gourdon, 
after reviewing the proceedings of the most celebrated cattle-breeders, contends 
that Durham oxen, New Leicester pigs, Ditchley sheep, and other successful 
examples, are, however useful to man, monstrosities, constituted in opposition to 
all the laws of health, and that connections of consanguinity always produce 
mischief, aithough it may be convenient to resort to them for special purposes. 


TEMPERATURE OF SPHEROIDAL Liqguips.—In a paper sent to the French 
Academy, M.S. de Luca states as the result of his experiments on water in the 
spheroidal state, that the liquid in this condition does not wet the vessel which 
contains, and receives heat by radiation and by occasional and imperfect contact 
with its sides; this heat is employed in volatilizing the superficial layer of the 
liquid, and in producing a vapour by which the radiant heat is absorbed, and 
consequently the spheroidal liquid varies in temperature, being cooled in propor- 
tion as the evaporation goes on. 


Aw Innocent GReen.—The Chemical News gives the following, on the autho- 
rity of the Journal de Pharmacie, as an innocent substitute for arsenite of copper 
in pastrycook’s work. ‘Infuse for twenty-four hours 0°32 grammes of saffron in 
7 grammes distilled water. Then take 0°26 grammes of carmine of indigo, and 
infuse them in same manner in 15°6 grammes distilled water. Mix both liquids, 
and a beautiful green is obtained, 10 parts of which will colour 1000 parts of 
sugar. ‘To preserve the colour evaporate the liquid to dryness, or convert it into 
a@ syrup. . 

A PowerFut Furminant.—Mr. J. Horsley, writing in Chemicel News, states 
that three parts of ferricyanide of potash and four of chlorate, make a violent 
fulminant, which explodes on being rubbed with a hard substance. Too great 
caution cannot be employed in such experiments, and the quantities should be 
very small. Mr. Horsley gives a timely warning of the danger of exploding 
white gunpowder by friction, and he calls the mixture of equal parts of chlorate 
and red prussiate of potash “a treacherously powerful fulminant.” 


ALcoHon FROM CoaL-Gas.—We read in Cosmos the following description of 
a patent taken out by the Sieur Castex in December, 1854 :—“ In burning organic 
matter the smoke which is disengaged can be entirely absorbed by concentrated 
sulphuric acid. This sulphuric acid mingled with water, and distilled, yields 
alcohol. ‘To facilitate the absorption of all the smoke of the organic matter, it is 
made to pass over a substance like coke, wetted with the sulphuric acid. Before 
sending out coal-gas it may be treated according to this method.” M. Berthelot 
first mentioned to the Academy his synthetic mode of preparing alcohol in 
January 1855. 


ProressoR WYMAN on InFusortt.—The American Journal of Science gives 
the details of a number of experiments relating to the controversy concerning 
the generation of infusoria. Professor Wyman, apparently operating with great 
care, obtains results nearer those of Pouchet than of Pasteur. He boiled various 
infusions of animal and vegetable matter, and sealed them in flasks containing 
only air that had been exposed toa red heat. Nevertheless, in a number of instances, 
he obtained infusoria, usually VibrioSpirillum and Bacterium, but sometimes ferment 
cells, monads, and kolped-like bodies. He cannot reconcile his results with the 
theory of the dissemination of eggs. 


Dacron’s MicropHorocraPns.—The Abbé Moigno gives a most enthusiastic 
account of the new method of preparing and exhibiting microphotographs invented 
by M. Dagron. After describing a process by which a series of the minute sun 
pictures are taken in rapid succession, he proceeds to inform us that a number of 
“cylinders of common or flint glass are prepared in advance, about five or six mil- 
limetres long and two thick. The second extremity of these cylinders is spheri- 

VOL. U.—NO. IIE. B 


230 Notes and Memoranda. 


cally rounded in a hollow, to transform it into a magnifying lens. To one 
extremity of the cylinder a microphotograph is fixed with Canada balsam, and 
the edges ground by an optical tool to efface the marks of the union. “ This is the 
photomicrographic cylinder, one of the most delightful conquests of science and 
art. . . . If we look at the plane end of the cylinder we see the picture with great 
difficulty as a black almost imperceptible point, and M. Dagron was naturally led 
to do for the second extremity what he had done for the first. He fastened on a 
second picture with Canada balsam, he rounded the glass in another hollow, and 
he obtained a cylinder which twice performed the functions of microscope and 
object holder.” In other cases he fixes the picture so that it can only be seen 
when the glass is held at a particular angle. As the originality of these methods 
was disputed, and their merit referred to Sir D. Brewster, who gave some similar 
hints, the Abbé Moigno obtained a letter from that philosopher vindicating M. 
Dagron’s claims to the invention. 


CLAUDE BERNARD ON VaSCULAR AND Catoriric Nerves.—In two papers, 
which will be found in Comptes Rendus, M. Bernard describes his “ experimental 
researches on the vascular and calorific nerves of the Great Sympathetic,” and thus 
states certain general conclusions to which he has arrived. ‘‘ It seems to me proved 
that the vascular and calorific nerves are special motor nerves. Before mingling 
with the mixt nerves, these nerves constantly emanate from the ganglia of the 
Sympathetic, where they may be always found concentrated as in a kind of 
plexus. These nerves afterwards distribute themselves in a special and exclusive 
manner to the vessels, and cannot be replaced by ordinary nerves, since, as we 
have seen, the motor nerves which animate the fibres of a muscle, do not distri- 
bute themselves to these vessels. Moreover, as I shall hereafter show, the vas- 
cular and calorific nerves have special physiological properties, and special reactions 
upon chemical agents.” In another place, he observes—“ My experiments on the 
Great Sympathetic of the posterior and anterior limbs, as well as on that of the 
head, demonstrate that the vascular and calorific nerves are throughout topo- 
graphically and physiologically independent of the muscular nerves properly so 
called ; from whence arises this general proposition, that the vascular circulatory 
apparatus possesses a special vascular motive system, and that the movement of 
the blood can be accelerated or retarded in the vessels either locally or generally, 
without any participation of the nervous motor system belonging to muscular 
movements. The local and functional congestions that periodically occur in 
certain organs, are examples of this independence of the circulatory movements, 
and fever furnishes us with a striking pathological example.” 


Navpiy on Hyprip Prants.—M. Ch. Naudin lays before the French Academy 
an account of his experiments with Datura Tatula and Stramonium. On crossing, 
he obtained plants which he calls Stramonio-tatula, and from the seeds of these 
he obtained offspring of the same sort. From these plants he took seed, and 
reared twenty-two fresh plants, of which five reproduced the characters of 
D. Stramonium, nine reproduced those of D. Tatula, and partially returned to 
the Tatula type, and six were nearer to it than to the hybrid ee of the first 
generation. 


PrIcRATE OF ANILINE.—We are indebted to Mr. John G. Dale, F.C.S., of 
Church, near Acrington, for a specimen of this new and interesting substance, 
which is, as he observes, a very pretty object for the polariscope. He says: “I 
find the best way to crystallize, is that recommended by Mr. Davies of Warring- 
ton for his sulphate of copper and magnesia. I make first a cold saturated solu- 
tion of the salt in alcohol as free from water as possible. Puta few drops on the 
slide, and dry it quickly over a spirit-lamp. You will by this means get a trans- 
parent varnish over the glass, from which the salt will crystallize in beautiful 
disks upon cooling. Sometimes the crystals do not appear with the first applica- 
tion, owing to the film being too thin; then it will be necessary to repeat the 
operation. ‘The crystals should be kept from the air, as they soon get dark 
coloured.” By following the above directions we have obtained beautiful results. 
Some of the disks have presented exquisite arborescent, rose forms very suggestive 
of ornamental designs. A pleasing effect is produced by revolving the polarizer, 
and the selenite stage may be used with advantage. 


Notes and Memoranda. 231 


Mr. GiatIsHEr’s Battoon Ascent.—The second scientific ascent of this year 
took place on September 5, and the descent was safely effected near Ludlow. 
The aeronauts passed through 2000 feet of cloud saturated with moisture, above 
which the air was clear. At three miles above the earth a pigeon was let loose, 
but could not fly, and dropped like a stone. Two others were similarly affected, 
but at four miles high a fourth managed to get to the top of the balloon. At five 
miles Mr. Glaisher felt symptoms of blindness, and the thermometer was 37° 
below the freezing point. He afterwards saw the barometer at ten inches, indi- 
cating 5$ miles, but was unable to register it, and he shortly became unconscious. 
Mr, Coxwell retained his faculties, and ascended for another ten minutes, the 
aneroid indicating about six miles. Mr. Coxwell then felt faint, and his hands were 
powerless, so that he had to pull the valve with his teeth, and the balloon com- 
menced its descent. At five miles the air was perfectly dry, and at the greatest 
elevation the temperature seemed as low as 44° below freezing, but Mr. Glaisher 
did not read the index until he was out of the car, and it may probably have been 
disturbed. As the balloon descended, Mr. Glaisher recovered, and recommenced 
his scientific labours, having reached a far greater height than was ever before 
attained. 


A New AppLicaTIoN OF THE THERMOMETER.—Hvery one accustomed to 
the use of the thermometer must be familiar with the fact that it gives no account 
of the effects of various temperatures, draughts, and damp upon the sensations. 
During the last great balloon ascent of Mr. Glaisher, a temperature of 17° was 
felt to be warm, because the voyagers had just quitted a region where the instru- 
ment registered some degrees below zero. So in leaving a room heated to 80° or 
90°, a temperature of 60° willbe felt to be cold. It is one of the advantages of 
the thermometer that it has no sensations, yet it would be an advantage if we 
could sometimes use it to measure the magnitude of those influences which affect 
sensation as to heat and cold, and the mode of so using it is very simple. A few 
years since Dr. Jonathan Osborne communicated to the British Association some 
experiments on the use of a heated thermometer as a means of instructing the 
physician as to the influence of climate on health, but the subject was neglected, 
and he has again called attention to it in an essay on the subject in the Dublin 
Quarterly Journal of Medical Science. One use of the heated thermometer is to 
explain the difference observed in the effect on invalids of climates having similar 
thermometrical characteristics. Thus the western coast of Ireland has a mild and 
genial climate if tested by the thermometer only, yet the trees are stunted in their 
growth by the constant wind blowing from the Atlantic, and invalids do not reap 
such advantages from a residence there as would be predicated by trusting to the 
thermometer only. So, during a severe frost, if the air is still, the cold is not 
much felt, but if there is a moderate breeze or a gale, even with a moderate rise 
of the thermometer, the sensation of cold is keenly felt, and, in point of fact, as 
regards health and comfort, the temperature is lower, though the thermometer 
says differently. In Petersburg, during the greatest severity of the winter, the 
drivers of public vehicles are bound to be at their stands, but if there is a wind, 
they may stay at home, for the cooling effect of wind might then prove fatal. The 
author thus describes the principle on which the use of the heated thermometer 
depends:—“‘ The bulb being heated up to 90° Fahr., represents the heat of the 
surface of the human body ; when in this state it is exposed to a cooler medium, 
whether air or water, or mixture of both as moist air, and allowed to cool to 
80° Fahr., the time for cooling these ten degrees represents (inversely) the cooling 
power exerted by that medium, whatever it may be, or however applied. This 
cooling power is derived from other agencies besides difference of temperature, as 
from radiation of the neighbouring objects, conducting power of the surrounding 
medium, and more especially from currents causing various proportions of it 
to be brought into contact with the heated body within a given time. Now 
these agencies have their combined results exhibited in the degree of rapidity 
with which the cooling is effected. Placed, as we are, in a medium with 
few exceptions, always below 80°, we are constantly undergoing a process 
of cooling. In our ordinary clothing we feel just comfortable at 56° indoors; 
but when exposed to a current of air, even at the same temperature, we 
feel cold in proportion to the forve of the current, or.in proportion to the 


232 Notes and Memoranda. 


conducting power imparted to it by increased moisture. Both these are agencies 
of which the thermometer takes no notice. Its imdications are furnished by the 
contractions or expansions of a fluid, whether mercury or spirit, which always 
maintains the same temperature as the surrounding medium, and accommodates 
itself to these changes by altering its own density in the same proportion. The 
living animal, on the contrary, as always maintaining a temperature of its own, 
and as constantly resisting cooling agencies, is not to be considered as passively 
submitting, like the fluid of the thermometer in its ordinary state. When heated 
to 90° Fahr., that being nearly the temperature of the surface of our bodies—in 
the rapidity with which it is cooled, depending on the intensity of the cooling 
influences, it furnishes au index to their combined effect. It does not depict the 
force of any one of the cooling influences taken singly, but gives the sum of them 
all acting simultaneously.” The facts illustrated by the heated thermometer are 
at least six in number, according to the experiments hitherto performed by Dr. 
Osborne. It shows the conducting power of air and water ; the cooling effects of 
currents of air and water; the effect of wind in cooling the body and all other 
objects of a higher temperature than itself ; the refrigerating effect of air admitted 
into apartments ; the degree of heat derived from fires in rooms as compared 
with the cooling effect of currents rushing towards the fire ; and the cold and heat 
of climates as actually felt by human beings. It is evident that a heated thermo- 
meter is capable of many useful applications. 


RE-INTRODUCTION OF MontTGoLFIER BatLoons.—The recent scientific ascents 
that have been made by Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell, appear to have given a 
new impulse to erostation and to have removed it from the class of merely hazardous 
amusements to the domain of science. In connection with these ascents we may 
notice the re-introduction of Montgolfier or heated air balloons. It has long been 
the opinion of many scientific men, that fire balloons are safer and much more 
easily managed than such as are inflated either with pure hydrogen or the coal 
gas which is now employed as a substitute. The prejudice against their employ- 
ment has arisen from the supposed danger of the balloon taking fire from the 
burning materials employed in rarefying the air, but this danger seems very much 
overrated ; as far as we are aware, no accident from fire ever occurred to a simple 
fire balloon. One fatal case occurred in France, in which two balloons were 
employed, the upper filled with hydrogen, the lower with heated air, but the evil 
result of this manifestly absurd arrangement does not militate against the employ- 
ment of the simple Montgolfier balloon. M. Godard, an eronaut attached to the 
French army, has recently ascended from the Pré Catalan in a Montgolfier balloon 
having a capacity of 4000 cubic metres, which can be inflated in less than half 
‘an hour; the fuel used for the purpose being compressed cakes of rye straw. On 
the last occasion he made a successful descent near Maisons, having performed the 
journey in twenty six minutes. 


Horne anD THORNTHWAITE’S EquatortaL StanpD.—We have examined 
the equatorial stand produced by the above-named opticians in answer to the 
demand made by the possessors of moderate-sized telescopes—a demand which we 
have reason to know has been much increased by the aid afforded to private 
observers through the succession of astronomical papers in our own pages—and 
we consider it an excellent instrument for the purpose, and at the price. It con- 
sists of a firm pyramidal stand of cast-iron resting upon three bearing-screws, by 
which, with the aid of the usual spirit-levels, the requisite adjustment can be 
made. The declination and hour circles are six inches in diameter, and by means 
of verniers can be read off with all the nicety that any ordinary observer can possi- 
bly require. The polar axis is easily inclined to the angle needed by the latitude of 
the place, and provision is made for fixing the telescope firmly, and securing it 
precisely at right angles to the axis on which its vertical movements are made. ‘The 
motions are all smooth and steady, and the workmanship very good. 


Se RATATAT A2 po 


Ay 


THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 


NOVEMBER, 1862. 


PHYSALIA PELAGICA. 


(Tue Portucuese Man-or-War.) 


(With an Illustration in Colours, from a Living Specimen in the Aquariuin of 
P. H. Bird, Esq.) 


BY H. NOEL HUMPHREYS. 


Tue wide range of zoophytic life, comprising as it does so many 
objects equally remarkable for singularly anomalous organiza- 
tion and exquisite colouring, presents us with no form combin- 
ing more remarkable structure with a display of more truly 
gorgeous tints than the singular creature popularly known 
among Hnelish sailors as the Portuguese man-of-war. This 
beautiful zoophyte, as seen floating—sometimes singly and 
sometimes in vast numbers—on the tropical seas, attracted the 
attention of naturalists at a very early early period, though the 
nature of its structure and its place in natural history were only 
acurately defined at a comparatively recent epoch. In modern 
times it has been known among seafaring men of different coun- 
tries by several such names as the galley, the frigate, or other 
appellations of similar import, in consequence of the crest which 
it has the power of erecting along the ridge of the back, which, 
when caught by the wind, assumes somewhat the appearance 
of a natural sail, by means of which it seems enabled to glide 
rapidly over the surface of the water. This, however, is not 
the case, as it does not move by this means, nor does it appear 
to possess the power of imparting any special direction to its 
course, which is entirely at the mercy of wind andwave. Our 
own sailors probably gave it the more distimctive name of the 
Portuguese man-of-war,* from first meeting with these crea- 
tures about the latitude of the Portuguese island of Madeira. 


* Our neighbour, Dr. Julian Evans, informs me that while residing in 
Madeira, a Portuguese physician inqnired of him, with half angry feeling, why 
this poor, powerless creature, was called by the English a Portuguese man- -of- -war, 
and whether any insult to the Portuguese navy was intended? To which he 
replied that the nime doubtless arose in that glorious period of Portuguese 
history, the beginning of the 17th century, when the Portuguese man-of-war, like 
the Physalia, was seen on almost every sea. 


VOL. II.—Nov. IV. iS) 


234. Physalia Pelagica. 


The Brazilians call this creature the mowrica, and the French 
la fregate. ‘The body itself, upon which the sail-like ridge or 
crest arises, 1s of a slight semi-diaphonous structure, and has 
somewhat the aspect of an unusually solid soap bubble, glisten- 
ing with a more than ordinary amount of iridescent hues. 
Although a native of the tropical seas, it 1s probable that 
stormy weather, or a long continuation of south-westerly winds, 
have occasionally carried specimens into the Mediterranean, in 
the southern regions of which a Physalia might flourish for a 
considerable time during the summer season, if general circum- 
stances were favourable. Jt is only m this way that we can 
account for the knowledge which Aristotle obtamed of this sin- 
gular creature. We know that through the munificence of his 
patron, Alexander, he was enabled to employ collectors of 
animals in the interior of Africa and in the far depths of Asia, 
and in no other way could he have seen specimens of such 
a vast number of animals of all classes, as he has accurately, or 
at all events, unmistakeably described. Well-preserved remams 
of terrestrial animals, and of many kinds of fish, might reach 
the great Greek naturalist in this manner; but the evanescent 
nature of the Physalia, which almost immediately loses its 
beauty on being taken from its native element, would not, after 
a long transit from distant regions, have reached him in such a 
state as would enable him to describe it scientifically. So that, 
unless specimens occur in the tropical parts of the Red Sea, 
there is no other way of accounting for his possession of fresh 
specimens. ‘The supposition, however, of the Physalia being 
occasionally carried mto the Mediterranean will expla away 
this difficulty ; and the case no doubt very frequently occurs, as 
the specimen from which our illustration was drawn had been 
driven by stress of weather as far north as the coast of the 
Isle of Wight. In examining or describing a rare and curious 
form of animal life, 1t is always interesting, as well as instruc- 
tive, to retrace the course pursued by successive naturalists, in 
their endeavours to assign to ib a fitting name, and find out 
its proper place in the scientific arrangement of the animal 
kingdom. I shall therefore endeavour to follow the labours 
of successive naturalists im their attempts to define the pre- 
cise nature of the Physalia. The earliest modern name of 
this zoophyte, Acalepha pelagica,* or sea nettle, is derived. 
from the ancient name conferred upon this class of marine 
creatures by Aristotle, in consequence of the venomous sting 
caused by the poisonous tentacula of several members of the 
group; a sting which leaves after it a white pimple precisely 
similar in appearance to that caused by a nettle. Aristotle 
included in this group the Actinize, now popularly known as 


* Aradnon, a nettle, and MeAayos, the sea. 


Physalia Pelagica. 239 


sea anemones. Phny, who had probably more abundant 
opportunities of observing the nature of this singular form 
of zoophytic life, adopts the name of Aristotle, translating 
it into Latin, as Urtica marma. Linneeus, in modern times, 
only knew this zoophyte from the account of it by Sir Hans 
Sloane, in his description of a voyage to the West Indian 
Islands, a curious and interestmg work, the title page of which 
announces that it is “illustrated with the things described, in 
large copper-plates as big as the life.’ The descriptiou in this 
work is, of course, very imperfect; but the Plinian name, 
Urtica marina is adopted, which Linnzeus changed to Holo- 
thuria physalis. ‘The generic term Holothuria was, however, 
erroneously adopted, under the impression that this zoophyte 
was more nearly allied than it 1s to the Hohthuridx, some of 
which are, like the creature under description, very beautifully 
tinted with iridescent hues. The specific term physalis, from 
the Greek, physe (dvon) a bladder, was adopted by Linnzeus 
in consequence of the bladder-hke form of the body, by means 
of which this creature floats upon the surface of the ocean, 
and this last name, so appropriately invented, is the one by 
which the genus itself is now distinguished. Cuvier, one of 
the first great general naturalists who succeeded Linnzous, 
separated the Actiniz from the Acalephe, placing the latter in 
a separate group, as Acalephes fixes, their habit being to adhere 
to rocks, m a somewhat plant-like manner. But afterwards, 
followimg Eisenhardt, he placed the Actiniz with the Polyps, 
and then separated the Acalephs into two divisions—Acalephes 
simples, a division including the Medusz, or jelly-fish, and 
Acalephes hydrostatiques, bemg those furnished with an appa- 
ratus for floating on the surface of the water, in the form 
of a bladder. The species under description formed the type 
of the last named group, as Acalepha hydrostatica. The 
term hydrostatica was not, however, so correct as the simpler 
pelagica, from the Greek word Hedayes, the ocean, because it 
does not float at will, by the means of an apparatus under its 
command, but simply from the reason that its structure causes 
it to float on the surface of the ocean quite independently of its 
own volition. Lamarck was the first to determine that the 
conspicuous bladder-like body was in fact the chief generic 
character of this singular creature, and he therefore transferred 
the ingenious and characteristic name which Linnzeus had only 
made a specific one, into the more honourable position of the 
generic appellation, making our Portuguese man-of-war assume, 
im scientific classification, the distinctive title of Physalia 
pelagica, or sea-bladder, which it still bears. 

In 1829, M. Eschscholtz, the Prussian naturalist (with whose 
name every lover of flowers is so well acquainted, through the 


236 Physalia Pelagica. 


medium of the beautiful Californian flower which was named 
after him, Eschscholtzia Californica), published a most interest- 
ing methodical memoir upon the Acalephze, which he termed 
System der Akalephen, which still forms the basis of more recent 
systems, and has been followed in the main by Blainville, by 
Brandt, and also by M. Lesson, to whose work, as the latest, 
I shall refer again, for the most recent scientific information 
on the subject. 

The first really characteristic representation of Physalia 
pelagica was that published by Mr. Bennett, as recently as 
1834, in his charming Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australia. 
This figure is, however, in some respects not thoroughly 
accurate, according to the specimen I have so recently seen, 
and from which the drawing at the head of this essay was most 
carefully made. 

Mr. Bennett, like a truly enthusiastic naturalist, commences 
the account of his own experiences in connection with the 
Physalia pelagica, with a few hints on the general richness of 
the shores of Australia in every form of marine life. Harvey, 
he tells us, has described above six hundred species of sea-weed, 
and the total number of the Australian Alez is estimated at 
over one thousand. IJnnumerable forms of zoophytic life, we 
are informed, exist on those shores which are still unknown, or 
very imperfectly described, and there are vast numbers of 
beautiful molluscs belonging to the genera Doris, Tritonia, 
Holis, and other genera. Many of the creatures belonging to 
these divisions of natural history, and which are truly resplendent. 
in their iridescent colours, are found in almost endless variety 
on the vast shores of Australia; and at Port Jackson, and in the 
neighbouring bays, it appears that the beautiful Physalia pela- 
gica, or Portuguese man-of-war is frequently found in the 
greatest profusion ; the coast, after a storm, being strewed with 
heaps of these stranded zoophytes. The inflated oblong bladder, 
which forms the apparent body of this creature, glows, as Mr. 
Bennett expresses it, ‘in delicate crimson tints, as it floats upon 
the waves.” But it is not only with crimson tints that it glows, 
there are veinings of rich purple and opaline flashes of azure, 
orange, and green, changing in position at every movement, and 
its long dependent tresses, or rather tentacles, are of the deepest 
purple, the rich tone of which is seen even beneath the water. 
In Mr. Bennett’s account we are further informed that the 
bladder or body in a full grown specimen of ordinary size 
measures about five inches the longest way, and the long de- 
pendent tentaculae are from four to five feet in length, and 
capable of being extended much farther when shot out for the 
capture of prey. The bladder is tough, slightly elastic, and 
semi-transparent. It is rather pointed at one end, which has 


Physalia Pelagica. 237 


been termed the beak, and rounded at the other. Along the 
highest part of what may be termed the back, forming a kind 
of ridge, is a crest, which can be elevated or depressed at will, 
and it is much larger in some specimens than others. This 
ridge or crest is sulcated and fringed at the edges. The lower 
part of the vesicle or bladder is of a light blue colour, streaked 
or veined almost imperceptibly with delicate green pencillings, 
the crest and beak being of a rich carmine, changing in various 
hghts to a bronzy-green or purple. But these beautiful hues 
fade very soon when it is taken out of the water, with the ex- 
ception of those of the long purple tentacule, which retain 
their colour till decomposition takes place. 

This singular floating bladder, with its marked crimson 
ridge, from which purple veinings extend down the sides, 
might, by a fanciful naturalist, be considered as the primal 
foreshadowing, or, as he might say, the nebulous origin of the 
fish form, the dorsal ridge foreshadowing the spine, and the 
blue veins marking the position for the future ossified radia- 
tions. The raised crest might represent the dorsal fin, the 
cartilaginous beak the position of the bony mouth, while the 
office of the gills and the ventral fins may be represented by 
the branchiz or short tentacles, the air-bladder forming the 
natural basis of many animals calculated to float in the water. 
Such a fanciful notion is not altogether extravagant, and in 
this age of speculative science, some physiologist, wedded to 
the hypothesis of gradual development, may be found to work 
out the theory that the Physalide are what Laplace might have 
termed the nebulous stage in the gradual creation of fishes. 

It has been said that the Portuguese man-of-war has the 
power to collapse by the exclusion of a portion of air from the 
bladder, for the purpose of sinking in the water, as fish do, 
and that it does, in fact, exercise this power on the approach of 
storms, when it seeks protection for its delicate structure by 
sinking to a great depth below the agitated surface. Mr. 
Bennett, however, positively asserts that it possesses no power 
of the kind, and that no apparatus can be detected, on the most 
delicate dissection, by means of which collapse or expansion 
could be governed. He states that he has seen them, in storms, 
turned over by the waves, when their great buoyancy causes 
them to regain their position without effort. He has observed 
also, in tempestuous weather, that so far from having been able 
to sink into the ocean depths for protection, they have been cast 
upon the shore in great numbers, the vesicle still remaining 
fully expanded. He also found that the air could not be forced 
out of the bladder except by violently bursting its tough vesi- 
cular tissue. The lone tentacles appeared to Mr. Bennett to 
consist of a series of globules containing fluid matter, and hav- 


238 Physalia Pelagica. 


ing a plate or sucker at the free extremity which these creatures 
ean fix tightly on their prey, not only securing it but benumbing 
it by exuding a glutinous substance (having a faint odour) 
which produces that effect. Persons attempting to take up these 
seemingly harmless and helpless creatures, are soon made to 
repent their rashness, for the tentacles, with wonderful sudden- 
ness, dart their numerous suckers to the hand and arm, mflicting 
the most painful sensation, which sometimes produces rather 
Serious consequences. Being anxious to convince himself of the 
precise character of the sting of the physalia, Mr. Bennett seized 
one by the vesicle, when it seu raised its long purple ten- 
tacles, by muscular contraction of the bands situated at their 
base, and they entwined themselves about his hand and fingers, 
inflicting severe pain, and adhering so tightly as to be exceed- 
mely difficult to remove. The stinging sensation continued so 
long as the minutest portion of the tentacles remained attached 
to the skin, producing not only local pain, but much constitu- 
tional irritation, ‘The pain also extended up the arm, gradually 
increasing in extent and severity, and seeming to act along the 
course of the absorbents ; the general sensation resembling that 
of a severe rheumatic attack. The pulse was accelerated, and a 
feverish state of the whole system was produced, the muscles 
of the chest bemg at the same time much affected, and pro- 
ducing, as in rheumatism, a painful difficulty of respiration. 

Even the secondary effects were very severe, and lasted for 
more than three quarters of an hour, a certain unpleasant numb- 
ness continuing for a whole day. The marks, where the ten- 
tacles had adhered, remained for some time longer, and kad the 
precise appearance of nettle stings. The degree of intensity of 
the pain appears to depend on theage and size of the zoophyte, 
as does also its duration. The application of cold water has 
been found to increase the severity of the symptoms, but vine- 
gar or oil appear to afford some relief. The irritatmg power is 
retained for some time in the vesicles of the cables after they 
are detached from the body of the zoophyte; and even linen 
cloth, used for rubbing off ste tiohtly-adhering portions, was 
found, when touched, ‘to produce a tingling and pungent sen- 
sation. 

Mr. Bennett captured great numbers, of different ages and 
sizes. The older specimens, he observed, had lost the rich 
carmine tint of the crest, which had assumed a dull orange tone. 
On taking a Physalia out of the water, it was observed 
that the bladder quivered with a contractile muscular power, 
and the beak also, but there was evidently no power of con- 
tracting the vesicle or expelling the air. After closely examin- 
ing the lower appendages attached to the base of the vesicular 
body, Mr. Bennett arrived at the conclusion that they varied in 


df 


Physalia Pelagica. 239 


form; while Cuvier thought that some of them might serve as 
suckers, some as ovaries, and the larger ones merely as tentacles. 
The shorter appendages, Mr. Bennett stated, have no stinging 
power, and were evidently provided with openings that seemed 
to perform the office of mouths, through which food was absorbed. 
These mouths were always expanded, as if seeking prey, at the 
moment that the long purple feelers were darted out to a great 
distance to secure an object aimed at, by adhesion, and also by 
benumbing it. By a strong contractile power, in the exercise 
of which the long tentacles shortened themselves by assuming a 
corkscrew form of folding, the prey was brought up close to the 
mass of shorter appendages or suckers, which, after the manner 
of polyps, Mr. Bennett conjectured might each be attached to 
a separate and independent stomach. 

Mr. Bennett observed, in a specimen caught in a net, several 
small fishes benumbed in the entanglements of the long purple 
feelers. On placing the specimen, together with its captured 
prey, in a large tub of sea-water, he was able to watch the com- 
mencement of the absorbent process. The semi-transparent 
vessels of absorption showed plainly the passage of portions of 
the fish, looking like those surgical preparations of the absorb- 
ents which, to show thew structure more plainly, are injected 
with mercury, the portions of fish appearing to glisten like 
silver within the absorbent tubes. He was anxious to ascertain 
whether these tubes communicated with any central receptacle 
or stomach, and was induced to consider, after careful dissec- 
tion, that they did not, but found the tissue of the bladder much 
thicker where the tubes were attached. The bladder itself he 
found composed of a double skin, the external one being formed 
of longitudinal fibres, and the internal one like a cellular mem- 
brane, both in appearance and consistence. He found it 
difficult to cut through the two coats at once, but they were 
easily separated, and when the outer was taken off, the air did 
not escape through the inner one, which still remained perfectly 
inflated. On cutting through a portion of the inner coat, the air 
still did not all escape at once, as though some delicate internal 
compartments still safely retained separate portions. In this state 
it still floated. When, however, he cut entirely through the lower 
part of the vesicle, the power of floating suddenly ceased, and the 
tentacles became paralysed. It will be seen when we come to 
the latest discoveries concerning the Physalia pelagica, that with 
all his care, Mr. Bennett just missed a part of the structure ; 
the apparent absence of which mduced him to believe that each 
sucker formed in itself a separate system of absorption and 
digestion. When confined in a tank the Physalia still exhibited 
all its powers, darting out its tentacles, which seem admirable 
organs of prehension, and unerringly seizmg and benumbing 


240 Physalia Pelagica. 


their prey in a similar manner to those of some kinds of actine, 
which have also a power, not precisely of lengthening the 
tentacles themselves, but of shooting forth from them a slender 
thread to a very great distance, the end of which is so con- 
structed that on touching its destined prey it benumbs it like 
the tentacle of the Physalia. In several of the Medusz also, it 
may be recollected that a similar power is possessed of shooting 
forth filaments from those dangerous pendent locks from which 
their name is derived. The Cyanea capillata, for instance, 
which drifts to the English shores after storms, being one of 
the most dangerous; and its tawny fibrous mass when seen 
floating on the water or lying on the beach should therefore be 
carefully avoided. It appeared also, on watching the actions of 
the Physalia in the tank, that it had no control over the direction 
of its own course, which seems to prove, judging from its powers 
when in confinement, that in the open sea it must be governed 
entirely by the wind, the wave, or the current. 

More recent investigations, however, have induced some natu- 
ralists to consider that the suckers, or feeding tentacles, are also 
to a certain extent organs of locomotion, and that at the same 
time they act as branches, or breathing organs. It has also 
been suggested that these creatures, as occurs in several of the 
lower kinds of animal life, may, in the course of them develop- 
ment, undergo several material changes of form, so as to exhibit 
at different periods striking differences, not only in their internal 
structure, but also in their exterior aspect. If such be the case, 
the Physalia may, as yet, have been described as a complete 
animal, whereas the expanded, or bladder-form of its existence, 
may only be its last phase of development, during which several 
organs may have disappeared, or have been only rudimentary ; 
just as the ventral legs of the caterpillar disappear in the per- 
fect insect, while the wings and antenne of the butterfly or 
moth already exist within the body in a rudimentary state. 
This supposition may serve to explain the different opinions 
of naturalists on several points of Physalean structure, and 
for the pomts of difference described by M. Lesson in his 
Histoire Naturelle des Acalephes, published in 1843, ten years 
later than the remarks of Mr. Bennett. The principal diffe- 
rences which occur in the anatomical descriptions of these 
eminent naturalists are, first, that M. Lesson conjectures that 
the sudden injection of the long tentacles with a fluid forms the 
principal cause of their power of excessive extension ; and 
secondly, that he actually has discovered a distinct central food 
reservoir, or stomach, not perceived by Mr. Bennett. M. Lesson 
states that, running along the base of the air-bladder, which 
is of much thicker texture than the upper part, he detected 
a digestive tube covered above by a membranous fold, and 


Physalia Pelagica. 241 


below by muscular tissues attached to the numerous sucking 
tubes. He describes also a well-defined liver, secreting a caus- 
tic fluid. ‘These discoveries appear to prove that the Phy- 
salide do not belong to the true polyp form, composed of a 
number of separate existences vitally attached to a central 
polypidom or rudimentary spine, as in the Alyconium digitatum 
(Dead-man’s Fingers), or to the Pennatulidee (the curious Sea 
Pens), but are of a much higher order of zoophytic life, 1f indeed 
they are to be classed as zoophytes at all. M. Lesson also 
gives amore precise account of the various appendages attached 
to the base of the vesicle than had been attempted before. 
There are, he says, four simple tubes without mouths, starting 
like the others from the digestive apparatus; and these he 
considers strictly breathing-tubes. The rest of the mass of 
short tubes he considers mouths, and the long tubes simply 
tentacles, as described by Mr. Bennett. M. Lesson admits six 
kinds of this class of Analeph, or “Sea nettle; but to his 
division of Cystisomes (a name which he has framed out of the 
Greek words cystis, a bladder, and soma, a body, as being more 
descriptive of the bladder-body by which the Physalia is dis- 
tinguished), he only assigns the single species Physalia pelagica, 
now under description, and which he further distinguishes from 
the allied kinds by the numerous prehensile tentacles. 

Several strange stories have long been in circulation among 
the West Indian Islands regarding the deadly poisons pre- 
pared from the dark purple tentacles of the Galley, or Portu- 
guese man-of-war. Among these, there is a legend that a 
negro cook determined to destroy his master by putting a 
small portion of these purple tentacles into some food, which, 
however, produced but hittle effect ; and he then resolved to dry 
a quantity, which he reduced to a dark blue powder,—the first 
dose of which, in some soup, it is said, caused the victim to 
die im dreadful convulsions. M. Lesson has, however, disproved 
all these idle stories by actual experiment ; the dried substance, 
he says, is absolutely inert; he has tried it upon dogs without 
its producing any effect. He has also seen dogs partake of 
the fresh tentacle, which, while it stung the lip wherever it 
came in contact with the external skin, was perfectly harmless 
in the stomach. After a storm, and when a number of Phy- 
saleas have been cast ashore, he also states that fowls being 
fed on them fatten quickly, and that the flesh of fowls so fed 
proved as wholesome as that of poultry fed in any other way. 

Dutertre in his interesting acccunt of the Antilles gives a 
curiously detailed account of the galley or frigate, as the French 
sailors term the Physalia. When full grown, he says the blad- 
der-body is of about the size of a goose’s egg, and when the 
shore becomes crowded with shoals of these creatures, it is, he 


242 Physalia Pelagica. 


Says, a certain sign of coming storms. He describes the sensa- 
tion of the sting as similar to the pain caused by a splash of 
boiling oil, and recommends brandy beaten up with the pow- 
dered berry or nut of the mahogany-tree as the best remedial 
application, but says that, at best, treatment can do no more 
than reduce the pain, and that the effect will not, under any cir- 
cumsiances, entirely subside till after sunset, considering him- 
self very lucky im having been stung as late in the day as 
two pP.M., so that he had less time to suffer than those who had 
received stings earlier in the day. Lebbord, in his Voyage aue 
Antilles, gives an engraving of the Physala, but not a very good 
one, and Savigny, in his account of the wreck of the ‘‘ Medusa’’ 
describes the agony of sailors seized while in the water by the 
tentacles of the ortie de mer. 

The specimen from which our drawing was taken was, it is 
believed, the first ever seen alive in London. It was obtained 
by my friend, Mr. P. H. Bird, M.R.C.S., while visiting the 
Isle of Wight in July last. He heard of an extraordinary 
creature having been secured by the captain of a trading 
vessel; and being an enthusiastic naturalist, hastened on board 
to see the marme wonder, of which very extraordinary accounts 
had reached him. He immediately recognised it as the Por- 
tuguese man-of-war, in whose tentacula a small Smelt was 
entangled and benumbed in the manner described by Mr. 
Bennett. Mr. Bird lost no time in making those little arrange- 
ments which caused it to change hands, and procuring a large 
barrel, placed it longitudinally, so as io serve as a temporary 
aquarium ; makine other arrangements for the conveyance of 
his treasure to London, where he looked forward to seeing it 
disport itself gaily in the large tank in his conservatory in 
Norfolk Square. ‘The journey was performed under favourable 
circumstances ; but on its arrival many of the long purple 
tentacles were found to have been worn off by the action of 
the water against the sides of the barrel; but the shorter ap- 
pendages were still perfect, and still brilliant in all their opaline 
tints; while the bladder-body was as magnificent as ever with 
its iridescent carmine, changing, with every change of light, 
to green, yellow, or purple. Many of Mr. Bird’s friends were 
fortunate im seemg it in a living state im his aquarium, but, 
in spite of fresh sea-water obtamed every day, its London 
existence was exceedingly brief, and many who had long 
wished for such an opportunity of closely examining a Phy- 
salea pelagica were disappointed of obtaiming a sight of it. 
However, several drawings were made from the life, and our 
colour-printed engraving was taken from one made by Mr. Bird 
himself, carefully compared with another made by a friend, 
which Mr. Bird considered more perfect in regard to some de- 


Hints to Beginners with the Microscope. 243 


tails, which he had very carefully observed, but had not defined 
with sufficient care in his own drawing, owing to the pressure 
of professional engagements which interrupted him before he 
could give the last touches to his work. On the whole, our 
engraving may be considered the most accurate portrait yet 
published of the Portuguese man-of-war. 


HINTS TO BHGINNERS WITH THE MICROSCOPE. 
BY T. RYMER JONES, F.R.S. 


Faw things are more discouraging to the student when first 
entering upon microscopical research than the frequent disap- 
pointments he has to encounter in his endeavours to procure 
living subjects for observation. He reads the instructions 
usually laid down in works upon the microscope, provides him- 
self with a multiplicity of apparatus, landing-nets, jomted rods, 
phials with elaborate contrivances for their attachment and 
detachment, cases of bottles, and corked tubes, etc., atid yet 
when he gets to the water-side, too often finds that, with all his 
appliances, he is unable to procure the creatures of which he is 
in search, reminding us forcibly of those amateur fishermen to 
be seen on the banks of every river, armed with all the parapher- 
naha procurable in London, and yet unable to catch a single 
fish, while the poor ragged lad who accompanies them, furnished 
only with a rod and line of his own rude manufacture, soon 
manages to fill his basket. 

We ourselves, in our younger days, enthusiastic though we 
may have been, found our ardour very considerably damped 
when, after a walk of twenty miles, we have returned wearied, 
as from a day’s shooting, with nothing but experience for our 
pains, whilst, as we now know, every object of which we were 
in want was easily obtainable in the nearest pond, had we but 
understood how to set about procuring it. We write not, be it 
remembered, for scientific readers, some of whom, perhaps, 
may smile at the simplicity of these remarks; our advice is 
addressed to the beginners with the microscope, who will pro- 
bably be benefited by the following suggestions :— 

Let us suppose that the young naturalist sets out in search 
of infusorial animalcules, furnished secundem artem with a dozen 
bottles, to be filled with different kinds, and is told to procure 
samples of the water from each place that he visits likely to 
contain these invisible atoms: he does so, but when he gets home 
in the evening to his microscope, however much better he may 
be for the exercise, he finds himself woefully taken in when 
he comes to examine the contents of his several phials ; for, 


244 Hints to Beginners with the Microscope. 


notwithstanding all that has been written about the astounding 
numbers in which Infusoria exist and their universal distribu- 
tion, the probabilities are, that im his whole collection he does 
not find a dozen specimens worthy of attention. 

True it is that in stagnant water wherein animal or vegetable 
substances in a state of decay abound, certain forms are met with 
in numbers absolutely incalculable, Monads, Spirilli, Huglene, 
and others, now by general consent referred to the vegetable 
kinedom,—thousands of these crowd every drop of the fluid con- 
taining them ; such, however, is by no means the case with the 
more highly organized forms of which the microscopist is gene- 
rally in search, the presence is almost exclusively restricted to 
the immediate vicinity of the plants they frequent, and on 
which they are found as numerously as sheep in a pasture, 
wandering over their surface by the agency of their cilia (Para- 
mecium, Kolpoda, etc.), creeping along their stems by means of 
hooked leg-hke appendages (Himantopus charon, etc.) attached 
to them by highly irritable stems, which shrink from the 
shghtest touch (Vorticella), or sometimes forming a very garden 
of living arborescences; if, therefore, instead of bringing home 
bottles of the water, the caterer for the microscope were to 
procure but a very small quantity of the verdure skimmed from 
the surface of the pond, we will venture to say that he would 
secure variety of specimens and abundance of delightful re- 
creation. 

There are, moreover, particular plants which are preferred 
by certain species, and on which they are almost exclusively 
found. The floating duck-weed, for example, is the favourite 
resort of Vorticella, Stentors, and the larger species of Infusoria, 
as well as of whole tribes of other interesting microscopic 
creatures. This, however, should be obtamed from a clear 
pond, and from undisturbed water; some quiet little spot, 
situated in the corner of a field, for instance, from which boys 
and cattle are excluded, and to which the sunshine has free 
access, not very large, but deep enough to allow of the growth 
of the larger aquatic plants. Such a locality is an invaluable 
adjunct to the microscope. The sportsman may rent his moors 
and the angler his streams for the sake of a few grouse or 
trout—we envy him not—a table-spoonful of the duck-weed 
skimmed from such a pond is worth all the moors in Cumber- 
land to one who prefers the society of his microscope to the 
companionship of his pointer or his fishing-rod. 

Suppose, again, that Hydre or the Polyzow are the objects 
sought after. To expect to find these in water taken hap- 
hazard from the pond is a very precarious speculation ; by 
fishing up, however, some of the sticks which testify by their 
appearance that they have been floating about for months, and 


SS See Oe 


= 


Hints to Beginners with the Microscope. 245 


scraping them with a pen-knife, or, better still, stripping off 
portions of their bark, the collector will be pretty sure, in 
favourable situations, to procure the objects of his search ; or 
thin slices may be shaved from the exterior of submerged piles. 
Any or all of these taken home in a jar of clear water will be 
sure to afford materials for study. 

The leaves and stems of the water-lily are the favcurite 
resort of many beautiful species, and on them may be likewise 
found the eges of several kinds of insects and mollusca. To 
obtain these some pains must be taken at the water-side: the 
leaves should be gently placed with their under surface upper- 
most in a wide saucer, or shallow dish, filled to a little depth 
with the clear element, and after remaining undisturbed for a 
short period should be examined with a pocket lens. Should 
anything be found worthy of preservation, the part to which it 
is attached may be cut out with a sharp penknife, so that it 
may be more easily and safely carried. 

By far the most fertile field, however, and one to which we 
would specially direct attention, will be found in those con- 
fervoid growths that im summer time mantle the ponds, cover- 
ing them with a sort of green carpet, composed of a thick felt, 
made up of interlacing fibres of such tenuity that 1t may almost 
be compared to the pulp from which paper is manufactured. 
Whoever has watched in early spring the gradual formation of 
this wonderful growth, will understand at once how valuable a 
resource it affords to the microscopist. During the winter 
season, in truth, our ponds are desolate enough; animal and 
vegetable life seem quite extinct ; and whilst the ‘* snow-broth”’ 
is on the waters it is almost superfluous to recommend our 
young friends to employ themselves at home in grinding thin 
sections of anything rather than expose themselves to chil- 
blains, benumbed fingers, and bad colds. No sooner, however, 
does genial spring again call forth latent vitality, and the re- 
turning sun shines brightly on the water, then, as by general 
consent, nature revives—ereen tufts appear, in which the young- 
lings of the year find refuge, and to these alone the naturalist 
should have recourse. LHvery little bunch of young confervee 
gently gathered from the surface of a stone, will at this time 
be found to swarm with nascent beings, or with creatures mm 
their tenderest stage of early growth, while in the water all 
around no living thing is met with. As spring advances, vege- 
tation spreads over the bottom of the pool, confervee of all 
kinds begin to multiply with such rapidity that, rismg like a 
cloud, they tinge the water red or green, according to the 
cclour they assume. Tew people trouble their heads about the 
growth of these confervee, or suspect the miraculous combina- 
tion of circumstances upon which their rapid increase depends. 


246 Hints to Beginners with the Microscope. 


They are composed individually of thread-hke filaments, made 
up of cells or microscopic segments, filled with vegetable 
granules ; every microscopic cell as it becomes mature divides 
into two young ones, and those thus formed divide again, and 
thus from hour to hour this process of division is repeated. 

We are all familiar enough with the prodigious results ob- 
tained by continually doubling the product of any given 
number even as many times as there are nails in a horse’s 
shoe or squares upon a chess-board, and know that by this 
process we soon arrive at arithmetical expressions far beyond 
what our minds can appreciate—millions and billions, and 
other numbers which it is easier to talk about than to com- 
prehend—and yet how inadequate are sums like these to 
express the increase of the progeny of the conferve, during a 
single day, by this process of spontaneous fissure ! 

These confervee, moreover, have another mode of reproduc- 
ing themselves which is even still more prolific and more 
wonderiul. ‘The cells of which they consist are individually 
capable of forming progeny in their mterior from which similar 
growths are developed. When a portion of one of these organ- 
isms is examined under the microscope, its cells may at certain 
periods be observed to contain numerous spherical granulations 
which, as they approach maturity, become pear-shaped, and 

rovided at one extremity with a little rostrum or beak, their 
body is filled with a green material (endochrome), and they 
generally exhibit a minute red spot, once described as an eye, 
but now recognised to be a globule of oil. As these germs 
become perfected they may be seen moving restlessly about in 
the interior of the cells in which they were formed, striking the 
walls of their prison with their little beaks, as though anxious 
to get free. Atlength the walls of the cell become ruptured and 
its liberated contents escape into the surrounding water, through 
which they speedily begin to move hither and thither with 
astonishing rapidity—now progressing in a straight line, now 
wheeling round and round, and, anon, lowerig their beaks 
they begin to oscillate upon them like peg-tops waggling just 
before they tumble down. Sometimes they stop altogether and 
again resume their curious and eccentric movements. After 
two or three hours of such exercise, their motion becomes 
much retarded, and at length, after faint struggles, entirely 
ceases, and the little zoospores le as though they were dead ; 
the vital principle, however, is still active within them, they 
soon may be seen to expand in their dimensions, to become 
partitioned off internally, and finally to send off two or more 
rootlets by which they become attached and stationary. Strange 
transition, from the roving life of an animal to the fixed con- 
dition of a plant ! 


Hints to Beginners with the Microscope. Q47 


Possessed, as the confervee are 6 nae, found to be, of limitless 
powers of reproduction, it is no longer surprising that they 
spread through the water in every direction, and at length 
reach from the bottom quite to the surface. As the heat of 
summer increases, the scene changes—the dead cells, emptied 
of their contents and filled with air rarefied by the heat, become 
at length buoyant, and the whole mass rises slowly to the sur- 
face carrying with it, entangled in its meshes, innumerable hosts 
of microscopic beings, all of which find food and shelter in the 
recesses of the floating mass, while the water of the pond is left 
comparatively destitute of living inhabitants. The principle 
upon which the microscopic contents of the water are thus col- 
lected together is very similar to that adopted in clarifying 
liquids by means of the white of an egg; the albumen in its 
fluid state is first equally diffused through every part; it is then 
coagulated by heat, and mounts to the top bringing all impuri- 
ties with it, and leaving the liquid below quite clear and 
pellucid. 

Durimg almost the whole of the last summer our only fish- 
ing ground has been the round pond in front of the palace in 
Kensington Gardens, the surface of which has been covered 
with a scum composed of these confervoid growths: of this we 
have at the present moment a small jar before us which, for a 
whole week, has afforded us an inexhaustible supply of micro- 
scopic forms, endless in variety and most interesting in their 
character. We will place a little of it under the microscope 
merely for the purpose of enumerating the organisms which 
it may chance to contain:—Desmidece and Diatoms present 
themselves in rich abundance; a few splendid volvoces roll 
about m stately leisure; goniwm pectorale shows itself in all 
stages of development. There are at least twenty species of 
cilated Infusoria; two or three gorgeous specimens of Acti- 
nophrys ; several kinds of Rotifers, young Planarize and various 
Entomostraca of all ages, Hydra fusca, many minute larve of 
imsects, and two or three specimens of Nais proboscidea. Such 
is the microscopic wealth contained in a minute bunch of con- 
fervee taken up at random. We might have brought dozens 
of bottles of water from the same pond without obtaining a 
specimen worthy of examination. 

These remarks are merely intended as hints to guide the 
beginner in his first researches. All that we wish “to insist 
upon is, that microscopic animals are always more or less 
associated with aquatic vegetation, upon or in the vicinity of 
which only they are to be obtamed with any degree of cer- 
tainty. 


248 The Fungus Foot of India. 


THE FUNGUS FOOT OF INDIA. 
BY THE REY. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S. 


Hyerry advanced practitioner is well aware of the immense 
influence which fungi exercise in the production or aggravation 
of disease in the animal as well as in the vegetable kingdom. 
A hundred memoirs or more might be quoted bearing more or 
less directly on the subject, besides the great work of Robin ; 
but unfortunately, in a few instances only, the persons who have 
recorded their experience have been sufficiently acquainted 
with fungi in general, to give anything like a complete history 
of the cases which have fallen under their observation, even if 
proper leisure was available for researches which require not 
only time, but continuous attention. Mere mycelia have in 
consequence been described as perfect plants, mistakes have been 
made in important pots of structure, and productions of an 
undoubted fungoid nature been referred to Aloz, though agree- 
ing with them neither in habit nor physiology, while the com- 
monest moulds have received new names, and several conditions 
of the same species have been registered as autonomous pro- 
ductions. 

One of the most curious and important cases of disease 
produced by fungi which have hitherto been recorded, is one on 
which a report was made in March 1860, by Dr. H. Vandyke 
Carter, the Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the Grant 
Medical College of Bombay, a disease which unhappily occurs 
in many parts of India, and is known amongst Indian prac- 
titioners as the Fungus Foot, or Fungus Disease of India, or 
under the scientific names of Podelcoma or Mycetoma. This 
disease, which has hitherto occurred amongst natives only, is 
undoubtedly due to the presence of a fungus which eats into 
the bones of the lower extremities, including the base of the 
tibia and fibula, and in process of time causes death from 
exhaustion, unless a timely amputation is made above the 
diseased part. 

Dr. Carter kindly forwarded to me his original memoir 
immediately after its publication, accompanied by illustrative 
specimens preserved in alcohol. He has since had an oppor- 
tunity of investigating other cases, which have enabled him to 
make some additional observations, recorded in the seventh 
volume of the Bombay Medical and Physical Society’s Trans- 
actions, in which he was materially assisted by my friend, Dr. 
H. J. Carter, whose labours as an acute observer and physio- 
logist are well known in this country as well asin India. The 
latter gentleman has placed at my disposal his no‘es and 


The Fungus Foot of India. 249 


sketches, and I am therefore in a condition to lay before the 
reader of this Journal, so far as it may be interesting to the 
non-medical world, a summary of a most curious matter, and 
one which at the same time is peculiarly suggestive. 

As the fungous matter assumes various forms, it will be 
well, in order to avoid confusion, to notice the most Peon 
separately, taking the most typical first. 

1. The first case, then, is that in which the bones of the 
foot and the base of the leg bones just above the ankle, for the 
disease never ascends higher, are perforated in every direction 
with roundish cavities, varying in size from that of a pea to that 
of a nut or pistol bullet, the cavities bemg filled up with 
a dense fungous mass of a sienna red within, but externally 
black and resembling a small dark truffle. From these cayi- 
ties, canals lead to the surface, from which a purulent foetid 
discharge 1s poured out, often accompanied by little pieces 
of the fungus. The masses and granules are imbedded in 
a whitish semi-opaque glairy substance of homogeneous con- 
sistence, while the walls of the canals have an opaque yel- 
low tint, and are readily torn. The whole of the surrounding 
softer parts are converted into a gelatiniform substance, 
taking the place of the muscles, the tendinous and fatty struc- 
tures being less readily changed. The foot presents externally 
the peculiar turgid appearance which it so often assumes in 
bad cases of scrofula. Besides the canals, pink stains or streaks 
are observable on the skin, and penetrating the subjacent tis- 
sues, filled with spherical or ovate groups of minute bright 
orange coloured particles, and contaiming occasionally a few 
larger cells, the nature of which has not at present been ascer- 
tained, though it is conjectured that they present the earliest 
appearance assumed by new attacks of the disease. 

Of the structure of the large truftle-like bodies I am enabled 
to give an excellent figure made by Dr. H. J. Carter, from a 
case which he examined immediately after amputation, and 
which is of course far better and more satisfactory than any 
which could be made from the preserved specimens. The 
parts in which the structure is most visible Ah esent precisely 
the characters of a true Oidium, such as O. fulvum (fig a, 
p. 255). Short beaded tawny threads arise from a common 
base, consisting of cylindrical articulated filaments, having at 
their tips large \ spore-like cells. These, however, do not appear 
to germinate in situ, but to become enormously dilated, their 
Bip umtonoUs contents assuming at length a resimous consistence, 
while many of them burst, and nothing remains except frag- 
ments of the old cell walls. The resinous matter is inflammable, 
but its exact chemical nature has not yet been ascertained. 

If, however, these large terminal cells be a form of fruit, 

VOL. II.—NO. IV, T 


250 The Fungus Foot of India. 


they are not in all probability the only form, for on three occa- 
sions the black fungous masses, either in maceration in water, 
preserved in alcohol, or scattered purposely on rice paste, to see 
if any further development would take place, gave rise to a 
peculiar mould, which it can scarcely be doubted is the perfect 
condition of the species, though at present it has not been 
observed in any other situation; a circumstance, however, 
which need excite no surprise, as so little attention has hitherto 
been paid to the minute fungi of India. Further observations 
will, 1 doubt not, demonstrate immediate connection with the 
disease. Of this fungus I am enabled meanwhile to give a 
sketch from Dr. H. J. Carter’s original drawing, and its beauty 
and singularity are both sufficient excuse for its reproduction 
in this place. The change from the early yellow or colourless 
transparent threads and sporangia to a fine red or crimson, 
make it a most lovely object for the microscope. 

The fungus made its appearance only in the months of April 
and May. I have great hopes next spring that I shall be able 
to cultivate the species myself from specimens placed in my 
hands, as so many moulds are grown with the utmost facility 
on rice paste, which affords an admirable opportunity of exa- 
mining them in every stage of growth, proper caution being 
taken not to confound different species with each other, as 
several will sometimes appear together, or in succession on the 
same mass of paste. 

The fungus resembles closely the genus Mucor, but there is 
no columella in the sporangium—a character which accords 
with Chionyphe rather than with Mucor. Indeed I do not see 
a single character in which it differs generically from Chionyphe, 
though the two recorded species occur only under snow. It is 
very possible, however, that the proper habitat of our fungus 
may be upon damp soil. It consists of a thin filamentous stra- 
tum spreading in every direction over the paste, so as to form 
little shghtly raised patches (fig. d, p. 256). The threads which 
are about 1-5400 of an inch in diameter, are more or less 
branched, and contain masses of grumous matter which give 
them an articulated appearance. These masses pass from a 
bright yellow into red. Short lateral branches from the my- 
celium give rise to a globose sporangium, which at first con- 
tains a single nucleus, but as it grows exhibits different phases 
of cell formation, and finally gives rise to short subfusiform 
spores, each of which contains a nucleus or oil globule at either 
extremity. The sporangia, which attain sometimes a diameter 
of 1-400 of an inch, like the mycelium, change from yellow 
to red, but some apparently are colourless. The spores when 
ejected germinate very rapidly, giving rise to fresh threads, 
which are at first perfectly straight. Some of the threads 


The Fungus Foot of India. 251 


of the mycelium, and probably the younger, are distinctly 
articulated, and in this case there is uniformly a nucleus or 
oil-globule at the upper extremity of each articulation, near 
to the dissepiment. The sporangia are sometimes covered 
with a network of threads, the exact origin of which is at pre- 
sent obscure, but the same appearance occurs in Mucor stolonifer, 
Corda, which often accompanies our Chionyphe on the paste 
(fig. e, p. 206). 

The species may be characterized as Chionyphe Carteri ; 
hyphasmate ex albo flavo-rubroque; sporangis demum coc- 
cineis ; sporis breviter fusiformibus. 

The name will serve to record the labours of the two Carters, 
united in their love of science though not in consanguinity, 
and there will be something of the same economy as regards 
nomenclature as that of which Ovid speaks with reference to 
a double birthday, “ Una celebrata est per duo liba dies.” 

Before passing to the other forms, | must add a word about 
the pink streaks mentioned above. It is highly probable that 
many of our common moulds occasionally commence with a 
similar condition. The first indications of vegetation on tainted 
meat or paste assume the form of little gelatinous spots of 
various colours, consisting of extremely minute distinct cells, 
and these seem to be an early stage of common species of 
Aspergillus and Penicillium, or other genera. If there be any 
truth in the notion which I have entertained for some time, 
that hospital gangrene depends upon some vegetation of this 
nature acting as a putrefactive ferment, there may be good 
reason for believing that the red spots in question are really 
the commencement of the disease under consideration. 

2. We now come to a second form under which the disease 
appears. In this the black fangous masses are entirely wanting, 
and in their stead masses are found of what looks like sloughing 
tissue. White granules, however, occur in the cavities and in 
the discharge, which appear to be a form of the same fungus, 
though the identity has not been proved. Under the micro- 
scope it wears the appearance of a congeries of large cells filled 
with smaller, much after the manner of Microhaloa firma, as 
figured by Kutzmg (fig.1, p. 252). The accompanying sketch, 
aiter Dr. H. J. Carter, represents a portion after immersion in 
sulphuric ether. According to Dr. H. V. Carter, these bodies 
have moniliform threads on their surface, but these I have not 
seen. Whether the perfect form of the plant be the same or 
not, the phases of the disease produced by it are exactly the 
same, and the malady admits of no other remedy. 

3. A third case is known under the name of the Madura 
foot, from its having occurred at Madura. In this case the foot 
becomes enormously enlarged about the instep, though not so 


252 The Fungus Foot of India. 


much at the ankle, while the toes are hypertrophied, and almost 
lost or imbedded in the mass. The small bones are nearly de- 
stroyed, leaving behind a pallid or reddish tissue, while the 
others are more or less excavated. There are the same canals 
and external sanious apertures. In some parts they are filled 
with the same fleshy tissue, in others lined with it, where large 
cavities are formed by the junction of several canals containing 
broken up osseous tissue from the exposed bones around, grey 
fragments and masses of pigment. The pink colour is partly 
owing toa general diffusion of pigment which tinges the oil- 
globules, and partly to the presence of very numerous single or 


aggregated elliptic particles. These granules are from the 
fiftieth to the 1-130th of an inch in diameter, and occur some- 
times as single ellipses, sometimes as two combined at the ex. 
iremities of their major axes, and sometimes as square bodies 
with rounded extremities divided crucially into four. They do 
not seem to be cells, at least cells of cellulose, containing a gru- 
mous mass, but resemble rather certain Palmelle. They are 
quite visible to the naked eye, insomuch that when the sawn 
surface is first exposed to view, it appears as if strewed with 
grains of red pepper, and pains were therefore taken by Dr. 
Carter to assure himself that they were not particles acciden- 
tally introduced through the open window. Further examina- 
tion convinced him that, though different in colour, they were 
similar in essence to the granules described in the second form. 
None of the black fungous masses appeared, but there were 
globular opaque bodies of various size which now require 


ee ee ee ee 


Libs fe Oe 


The Fungus Foot of India. 253 


{ 
Er 
-é : 


= 


Ss 


254 The Fungus Foot of India. 


notice, and which, though at first apparently so different, are 
closely connected with the fungus of the first form. 

The foundation of these bodies, of which one is represented, 
shehtly magnified, at fig. 2, consists of one or more large 
mother-cells filled with a mass of daughter-cells as represented 
in the plate at p. 256 (fig. b,c). These are clothed externally 
with a radiating growth assuming a vast variety of forms, some 
only oi which are here represented from Dr. H. J. Carter’s 
sketches. The structure often so exactly simulates that of 
minute moulds, that it is very difficult to get rid of the notion 
that they are really vegetable growths. Pure sulphuric ether, 
however, dissolves them completely, and shows that they are 
merely different forms assumed by stearine. Sometimes the 
white mass consists of straight slender threads radiatmg in 
every direction, each of which is surmounted by an elliptic 
spore-like body (fig. 3), or by a regular globe (fig. 4), while 
occasionally the threads or crystals are shorter and the globe 
irregular (fig. 5). Sometimes the globules are absent, and in 
one case the fundamental cell budded like the receptacle of an 
aspergillus (fig. e, p. 256) ; each new cell being separated by an 
articulation and supported on a short stalk, as represented in the 
plate. Sometimes the outer coat consists of regularly dicho- 
tomous or trichotomous fascicles of linear crystals, which are 
free above (fig. 6) ; sometimes, on the contrary, the fascicles 
are dilated above with ciliary processes (fig. 7), or occasionally 
lobed (fig. 8); while occasionally there are straight radiating 
bodies surmounted by a globular mass, pierced and surrounded 
by cilia, after the manner of velutella (fig. 9). Another form 
appears under the guise of little feathers (fig. 10), while a not 
unfrequent one consists of leaf-like, oblong, strongly acuminate 
scales, simulating the leaves of mosses (fig. 11). The founda- 
tion is, however, in every case an organized cell, the red colour 
of whose daughter-cells is precisely that of the oidioid thread of 
the black fungus. Whatever may be thought of the second and 
third forms of vegetable growth, this, at least, must be consi- 
dered as identical with the first, though at present the Chionyphe 
has not been raised from its globules, which, however, are so 
closely involved in stearine, that their germination 1s ‘scarcely 
probable. 

Dr. H. V. Carter has in his second memoir entered at some 
length into the probable mode of introductionof the evil, but as his 
observations depend mainly on the erroneous reference by Corda 
of the genus Alcidium to the group of Myxogastrous fungi, the 
spores of which in germinating frequently put on the characters 
of such infusoria as amoeba, and whose Ssubgelatinous spawn con- 
sists of a substance analogous to, if not identical with, the 
sarcode of Dujardin, it 1s not necessary to follow him on this 


The Fungus Poot of India. 255 


point. There is not the slightest ground for supposing that 
the disease depends on inoculation with the spores of any of the 
truly parasitic fungi belonging to the tribe of rusts and mildews, 
and, therefore, more or less closely allied to Aicidium ; but great 
reason, on the contrary, as appears from what has been stated 
above, and in the Appendix B to the second memoir, for look- 
ing to the origin amongst the mucors, even were there not some- 
thing like direct proof. 

It is well known that mucedinous fungi make their appear- 
ance within cavities of vegetables which have no apparent con- 
nection with the outward air. Nothing, for example, is more 
common than to find a pink mould (Trichotheciwm roseum) in the 
middle of a nut; and an allied vegetable production (Dactyliwm 


oogenum) has been found in an unbroken egg. Hven the cells 
of plants themselves produce fungi which fructify within them. 
How the spores are carried there is at present a mystery, which 
may some day be cleared up, like the origin of many intestinal 
worms, which can no longer be brought forward as an argu- 
ment for equivocal generation. ‘here is, however, reason to 
believe that amoeboid growths are not confined to such dust- 
like fungi as the Althalium which is such a pest in pine-stoves ; 
and zoospores have already been ascertained to occur in certain 
moulds, as, for example, in the Peronospora which causes the 
potato murrain. The Fungus foot is confined to the natives 
who go about with naked feet, and the spores might easily be 


256 The Fungus Foot of India. 


ee ae Se Pe 5 5 


The Fungus Loot of India. 207 


introduced through some scratch, even were it impossible for 
them to penetrate by the pores of the skin. When once intro- 
duced beneath the cuticle a single spore might soon perform 
the work of destruction spreading in every direction, and accord- 
ing to the peculiar condition of the secretions, the mycelium 
might put on a hundred different modes of growth. Besides, 
if the fungus is capable of causing the absorption of solid struc- 
tures like bone, it 1s easy to conceive that a spore in contact for 
some time with a moist foot might penetrate the cuticle simply by 
absorption. Cleanliness in the first mstance seems to be a pre- 
ventive, but when the fungus is once established, there seems to 
be no cure save amputation—which, happily, when resorted toin 
time appears to be completely successful, as the disease never 
spreads beyond a certain point, though, if it be allowed to take 
its course, death will ensue from the exhaustion consequent on 
pain and the continuous discharge. 

In some cases it would seem as if the foot was already in a 
diseased state when the fungus was introduced. At least the 
history of one case which apparently commenced with a boil on 
the instep, which was treated by native doctors, a thorn bemg 
used several times as a lancet, indicates such a lesion as might 
well encourage the growth of a fatal parasite. 


EXpLANATION OF THE Prats, p. 256.—b a single cell magni- 
fied which has been freed from the coat of stearine by immer- 
sion in pure sulphuric ether ; ¢ a budding cell similarly treated ; 
d the red fungus, Chionyphe Carteri, springing from particles 
of the black fungus scattered over rice paste; e a portion of 
the same magnified, showing the sporangia in different stages 
of growth, from their first origin to the dispersion of the spores, 
and some of the latter germinating. 


258 On the Aurora Borealis. 


ON THE AURORA BOREALIS. 
BY DAVID WALKER, M.D., F.L.S. 


AW appearance so remarkable as the Aurora could not fail to 
attract the attention of early observers, and afford cause for 
much conjecture. 

About the earliest theory respecting its origin, supposed 
that it was produced by the refraction of the sun’s rays; 
another, that 1t depended on a mixture of the atmosphere of 
the sun and earth; while many ascribed it to the effects of the 
magnetic fluid. But as the science of electricity became better 
known and more fully developed, when its luminous effects were 
shown, and especially when a resemblance was traced between 
the luminosity displayed by the passage of an electric current 
through a partially exhausted tube, and the appearance of 
Aurora, all previous hypotheses were abandoned, and the 
theory of Cavendish pretty generally adopted, which supposed 
that Aurora is dependant on electricity, transmitted through 
regions where our atmosphere is in a very rarefied state; at 
the same time it considered that some connection could be 
traced with the magnetic force of the earth. Since the laws of 
meteorology have been more fully understood, and the prac- 
tice of recording meteorological observations more widely ex- 
tended, the appearance of Aurora has attracted proportionate 
attention, especially in its connection with the local variations 
of the magnetic needle, and the disturbances noticed in the 
atmospheric electrometers. Such observations have shown, 
among other facts, that an Auroral light has been simulta- 
neously perceived over a very extended space, e.g. the Auroral 
hght and magnetic disturbances of 1831, 1839, and 1859, were 
noticed at the same time, not only in the northern hemisphere, 
but also in the southern. ‘Tables of the comparative frequency 
of the appearance of Aurora in different places, however, indi- 
cate the neighbourhood of the Arctic zone as that in which 
these phenomena most frequently occur. 

Electricians and astronomers have endeavoured to ascertain 
the height of the Aurora above the earth by measurement of its 
are, but the results of their observations, taken from different 
points of view, and perchance not directed to the same Aurora 
—each observer seeing his own particular arc—are discordant. 
Thus, of two observers who calculated the height of an Aurora 
in January 1831, one made it eighteen miles, the other ninety- 
six. The ancients believed it to be very great, even beyond 
the limits of our atmosphere. Cavendish supposes its usual 
elevation to be about seventy-one miles above the earth, at 


On the Aurora Borealis. 259 


which height the atmosphere must possess but >3j 5a, part of 
the density of that at the earth’s surface. More modern ob- 
servers think it seldom rises above the region of the clouds, 
while Parry, Wrangel, Struve, Fisher, farquharson, and others, 
ascribe to it a very inconsiderable height. 

Observations made in Aberdeenshire tend to prove that at 
times it is not more than half a mile above the surface of the 
earth. Parry, in January 1825, whilst watching the varia- 
tions in the forms of an Aurora, saw a ray of light dart down 
from it towards the earth, between himself and the land, which 
was some 3000 yards from him, two other officers of the expe- 
dition witnessing it at the same time. I believe | am correct 
in stating that many Arctic observers believe the Aurora to 
attain a very small elevation in high latitudes. Hood and 
Richardson observed the same Aurora from different places ; 
to the one it appeared in the zenith, forming a confused mass 
of flashes and beams; to the other, many miles distant, look- 
ing in the same direction as the first observer, 1t presented the 
aspect of a low illumined arch. Sir Wilham Hooker informs 
me that, while passing a night on the summit of Ben Nevis, he 
distinctly saw the Aurora hang in the valley between a neigh- 
bouring elevation and that upon which he stood; also, that at 
another time, during a fall of snow upon a mountain side, he 
observed the particles to be distinctly luminous, the air giving 
evidence at the same time of the presence of much free elec- 
tricity. General Sabine tells me that he has seen the Aurora 
low down, and passed through it, as one would walk through 
a mist. On the nights of the 30th and 3lst March, 1859, I 
noticed the Aurora between myself and the land. The patches 
of ight could plainly be seen a few feet above the surface of 
the water in Bellot Straits, the opposite land being about two 
and a half miles distant; and I am confident that had the land 
been sufficiently high, many of the Auroras seen during the 
winter above the water space in Bellot Straits would have been 
seen suspended above the water or ice at a low elevation. 

I give an abstract of over two years’ continuous observations 
in the Arctic regions. More than half the number of Auroras 
noticed were seen in the direction of an open water space, 
where much evaporation was going on; these Auroras begin- 
ning to appear at various degrees above the horizon, over a 
fog bank. Many were observed when minute spicule of snow 
were visible in the atmosphere, or when a mist gradually 
filled the air, also when cirrous clouds were seen, even when 
their presence could only be detected—on account of their 
thinness—by the formation of a halo round the moon. Occa- 
sionally, when daylight appeared, and the Aurora became 
gradually invisible, in its place thin fleecy clouds were noticed. 


260 On the Aurora Borealis. 


Several of the Auroras affected the electrometer and the mag- 
netic needle, causing in the former marked and increased diver- 
gence of the gold leaves, and considerable oscillation and varia- 
tion in the movements of the latter. I will copy from my 
journal the notice of one Auroral exhibition :—“ Dec. 17th, 
1857, at 6°30 P.m., observed a faint Aurora from §.8.H. to H; 
nothing particular in its appearance, it died out about 7°15. 
At 10 p.m. observed a bright Aurora extending from 8. to 
N.N.H.; a low bank of fog, 5° above the horizon, formed the 
edge of an are about 1° broad; 2° above this another are 
was situated, about 4° broad; these changed into broad lumin- 
ous clouds at times, and then again formed one thin long arc, 
extending continuously from 8. to N.N.E., with streamers 
ascending 8° to 10° towards the zenith; the colour generally 
a yellowish-green, but once it was quite reddish in the H., at 
which point the Aurora was most mtense and constant. I 
again noticed the pulse wave; it oscillated from §.8.H. to H. ; 
the ‘merry dancers’ sometimes was the form assumed; once 
or twice there was an instantaneous intensity in the light of the 
whole mass, and as quick a relapse to the original. 

** In the thick body of the Aurora the light was so intense as 
completely to hide the appearance of stars of the first magni- 
tude,—through the streamers the stars showing, although but 
dimly. At 11 o’clock, I noticed a shooting star of a very bright 
character; it descended from 35° degrees above the horizon, 
and below Saturn towards the horizon, but on approaching the 
Aurora it was dimmed and then completely obscured; it fell 
very slowly, when it came to the thick band it left a tail 2° be- 
hind it. No sounds were heard with the Aurora; those bands 
which did appear were as luminous as those of last night, but 
were more confined to one part of the sky. 12 p.m.: still con- 
tinues, more concentrated and alittle brighter ; dense streamers 
longer and altogether higher above the horizon. Since the 
appearance of the Aurora, the wind has increased. ‘Tempera- 
ture —21°. 4 a.m.: the Aurora still brilliant and in the same 
direction, forming more of an acriform shape, and changing 
sometimes to areddishhue. 9 a.mu.: still apparent, now crosses 
the zenith, not in streamers but in shapeless patches of thin 
light, from §.W. across the zenith to W. and W.S.W.; also 
from HE. to N.W. a broad band, about 70° above the horizon in 
H., is very persistent against the blue background ; the stars 
are visible through it. Minute spicule of snow visible through 
the atmosphere. As the daylight increased the Aurora became 
less visible, and at 10 a.m. 1t was not seen, but in its place thin 
fleecy clouds appeared, just as if it had been the cloud which 
had been rendered luminous. At 10 30 a.m., whilst the cloud 
still remained, I connected an electrometer with the copper 


On the Aurora Borealis. 261 


wire in the observatory, when distinct separation of the gold 
leaves took place. At 6 p.m.an Aurora was visible from H. to 
W. and N.W. across the zenith ; 1t was in the form of bands or 
streamers. I again tried the electrometer, and again perceived 
distinct divergence of the gold leaves. This Aurora disap- 
peared about 7 pm. Again, at 8°30, there was an Aurora, 
stretching from 8.8.W. to 8.8.H., in the form of a bent arch or 
horseshoe, the key being in 8.S.H. Again the electrometer 
was connected, and a still greater divergence of the gold leaves 
than before was noticed. ‘This may be from the greater lumi- 
nosity of the Aurora. I tried paper saturated with iodide of 
potassium, interposed between two platinum wires, connected 
with the chain and the water, but no decomposition took place 
and no spot was obtained. 12 p.m.: this Aurorais still visible, 
but with no particular shape; it extends from 8.8.W. by 58. to 
N., and not only horizontally but vertically scintillations appear. 
Tt is most luminous towards the S. where occasionally a wave 
appears, not like a pulse, as was the case the last two nights, 
but as if the cloudy appearance had been connected in the 
S.S.E. with an electric machine which, when turned, caused a 
flash of light to proceed from 8.S.E. to $8. Thin streamers 
passing towards the zenith; the body of the light decidedly 
obscures the stars of all magnitude behind it. Temperature 
—23°°5, bar. 29° 82.” 

So much for my own observations. Before, however, de- 
ducing thence any theory, I will condense a few of the latest 
and most plausible. M. Biot’s is in substance as follows :— 
That the luminous clouds of which the Aurora consists are 
composed of metallic particles, reduced to an extremely minute 
and subtle form. Such metallic clouds—if the expression may 
be permitted—will be conductors of electricity, more or less 
perfect, according to the greater or less proximity of their con- 
stituent particles. When such clouds arrange themselves in 
columnar forms, and connect strata of the atmosphere at dif- 
ferent elevations; if such strata be unequally charged with 
electricity, the electrical equilibrium will be re-established 
through the mtervention of the metallic columns, and light and 
sound will be evolved in proportion to the imperfect conducti- 
bility of the metallic clouds, arising from the extremely rarefied 
state of the fine dust or vapour of which they are composed. 
If the metallic cloud possess the conducting power in a high 
degree, the electric current may pass through it without the 
evolution of light or sound; and thus the magnetic needle may 
be affected as 1t would be by an Aurora, though none be visible. 
If any cause alter the conductibility of those columnar clouds, 
suddenly or gradually, a sudden or gradual change would follow 
in the splendour of the Aurora. 


262 On the Aurora Borealis. 


M. Becquerel objects to this theory that the existence of 
metal, in that uncombined form in which alone it has the con- 
ducting power—in volcanic eruptions—is not yet proved. In 
explanation of which objection, it should be added that M. 
Biot’s theory supposed the electricity to proceed from polar 
volcanoes. 

Professor Faraday, in voli. of his Researches, remarks :— 
““T hardly dare venture, even in the most hypothetical form, to 
ask whether the Aurora Borealis and Australis may not be the 
discharge of electricity thus urged towards the poles of the earth, 
from whence it is endeavouring to return by natural and ap- 
pointed means above the earth to equatorial regions.” 

Humboldt says :—“ The Aurora Borealis has not been de- 
scribed merely as an external cause of a disturbance in the 
equilibrium of the distribution of terrestrial magnetism, but 
rather as an increased manifestation of telluric activity, amount- 
ing even to a luminous phenomenon, exhibited on the one 
hand by the restless oscillation of the needle, and on the other, 
by the polar luminosity of the heavens. The polar light appears, 
in accordance with this view, to be a kind of silent discharge 
or shock, at the termination of a magnetic storm, the disturbed 
equilibrium of the electricity is renewed by a development of 
heht by lightning, accompanied by pealing thunder.” 

M. De La Rive, after speaking of the two electricities of the 
earth and atmosphere, and the recomposition goimg on between 
them, and stating that the great electrical discharge takes place 
at the poles, proceeds :—“ This discharge, when it has a cer- 
tain degree of intensity, will be luminous, especially if, as is 
nearly always the case near the poles, and in the higher regions 
of the atmosphere, 1t meet on its way those extremely attenu- 
ated frozen particles out of which the loftier clouds and mists 
are formed.””? More lately still he expresses similar and more 
elaborate views. (See abstract in the InreLLecTUAL OBSERVER 
for August.) 

In the Arctic seas there is always more or less evaporation 
from the surface of the exposed water, and according to the 
time of year the area of exposed sea surface will be great or 
small. ‘Towards the end of August and beginning of Septem- 
ber, as the sun’s altitude decreases, the nights become gradu- 
ally colder, the surface of the sea is frozen over, and the differ- 
ence between the temperature of the air and water increases. 
[For my purpose I will speak of the sea of Baffin’s Bay and 
Davis’s Strait.] With the advance of the season, the evapora- 
tion, which in summer appears as fog, in winter takes a different 
form; for wherever a space of water appears, and the tempera- 
ture of the air is colder than that of the water, the vapour of 
the water, in risimg from its surface, becomes visible as a dense 


On the Awrora Borealis. 263 


mist over that place, and is termed “ frost smoke,” or “ water 
blink.” The mass of ice fillmg Davis’s Strait and Baffin’s Bay 
is broken up by winds, tides, and currents, and spaces of water 
appear among the fields of i ice; thr oughout the winter the air 
in the neighbourhood of these spaces is ; always loaded with eX: 
tremely minute spiculee of snow, recognizable as “ frost smoke.”’ 
As the cold increases, the number and intensity of Auroras, seen 
at any place on the Greenland coast, would be in proportion to 
the proximity of the edge of the ice to that place, for, as a rule, 
Auroras increase in brilliancy as they approach the zone of the 
line of winter ice. If we draw a meridian line passing through 
the middle of North America, we find the annual number of 
Auroras increase up to 62° N., where they appear in all parts 
of the heavens ; farther north the number decreases, and the 
display is seen more frequently in a southerly direction. The 
same rule will hold good of a meridian passing up Davis’s 
Strait, only the maximum point of auroral intensity will be 
situated several degrees to the northward of 62°. Still more so 
will be the comparison for a meridian passing through Central 
Hurope. LHarly in the winter, at the northern posts of Green- 
land, the Aurora is seen indefinitely higher up in the sky, and 
nearer the zenith, than at a later period of the year, when, 
after the sea has been, to a great extent, covered over with ice, 
the Aurora locates itself towards the open water spaces. During 
the first fifteen months of Dr. Kane’s stay at Rensselaer Har- 
bour, no Auroras were seen, or open water space noticed. At 
the south of Greenland, where the ice of Davis’s Strait edges 
upon the waters of the Atlantic, a greater number of Auroras 
is seen than in any other place along that coast lime. Most of 
the Auroras noticed during the last Arctic expedition were in 
the direction of the open space of water seen during the day, 
such spaces being, as usual, marked by the “ frost smoke.” 

From the above well-authenticated facts, I cannot but be- 
heve that these Auroras were connected with the vapour arising 
from the open water spaces, and that they were caused by the 
condensation and subsequent freezing of the particles of vapour ; 
such particles evolving positive electricity, and by induction from 
the surrounding atmosphere producing a light transmitted from 
particle to particle, thus rendering the whole mass of vapour 
luminous, the lower edges of the arch of the Aurora being the 
place where first this condensation and freezing takes place. 
And if such be the cause of many of the Auroras near the 
Arctic circle, 1 see no reason why the same effect should not 
be produced elsewhere under similar circumstances. 

Whenever the temperature of a cloud, charged with parti- 
cles of vapour, is lowered—either by changing its position, or 
by the access of a colder atmosphere—and the particles become 


264 On the Aurora Borealis. 


frozen, then electricity will be evolved, and by induction a 
luminosity will appear; such clouds meeting with others of 
opposite electricity, would communicate by means of streamers, 
these also being luminous. In other words, a vaporous cloud, 
passing through a region where the air is of lower temperature, 
becomes condensed, and, if the temperature be sufficiently low, 
composed of minute frozen spicules, which induce reecomposition 
between other clouds of different electricity near them, causing 
streamers and bands to flash out light. These appearances 
will present themselves wherever there are clouds composed of 
frozen particles, acted upon by the surrounding atmosphere or 
by neighbouring clouds, so that no altitude will be too great 
or too inconsiderable for the appearance of Aurora so long as 
the atmosphere contains the necessary conditions for the 
evolution of this light. Oftentimes in this country, and in 
crossing the Atlantic, I have seen Auroras which at times as- 
sumed simply the appearance of cirrous clouds. ‘The wind may 
occasion a pulsation in the body of an Aurora, and even a 
greater degree of brillancy, the friction produced by it perhaps 
causing an increase in the electricity evolved. 

I believe Awrora is never seen, except when clouds or other 
similar vapours are exposed to the process of congelation. We 
know by Mr. Glaisher’s last balloon ascent that a temperature 
of —20° occurs at a height of six miles above the earth, at the 
same height clouds exist; here, then, according to this “ con- 
eclation 2 theory, Auroras may appear, or at any other heights 
where similar circumstances are to be found. It may be argued 
that Auroras are often seen on a clear night when no clouds 
are visible, but there is no proof that vapour-masses do not 
exist at the same time; in fact, often when no such masses are 
seen in the sky, a halo round the moon or sun will ex]nibit 
irrefragable evidence that such are present, though they be 
otherwise undistin cuishable. 

This theory would go far to account for the more frequent 
appearance of Aurora in this country ie , the amount of cold 
having been greater during late winters: last wimter, however, 


oS 
being mild, very few Auroral displays were noticed. 


bo 
oo 
(x4 


Plucker on Spectrum Analysis. 


PLUCKER ON SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. 


Tae following is a translation of two articles which have 
appeared in Cosmos, from the pen of the celebrated philosopher 
of Bonn, and will be regarded as a very valuable contribution 
to our knowledge of a new and interesting subject. It tends, 
on the one hand, to correct exaggerated notions of the facility 
which the new process affords of ascertaining the constitution 
of the sun, or other remote bodies, while, on the other, it opens 
a wide field for further research and discovery. M. Plucker 
observes :—‘‘ Spectral analysis, as conceived by me in 1858—9, 
consists in introducing the gas to be examined in tubes, of 
which one portion is capillary. After having conveniently 
rarefied the gas by means of a mercurial evacuator, the dis- 
charge of an induction apparatus is made to pass through it. 
The electric current, condensing itself in the capillary tube, 
renders incandescent the gas which it contains. The hght is 
sufficiently bright to afford a beautiful spectrum, which is 
usually composed of a certain number of brilhant and charac- 
teristic lines, one of which, whose position is exactly determined, 
indicates the nature of the gas which is the subject of the 
experiment. 

“‘T have thus operated on the ordinary gases and on certain 
vapours. When the vapour of a substance introduced into the 
tube has not the density necessary to cause the current to pass 
through it, a lamp is employed to increase the vaporization until 
the current traverses it, and produces incandescence. In this 
way I have treated mercury. [Following the same principle, to 
obtain the spectrum of metallic sodium, I first fill the tube 
(which I have named after Geissler, the ingenious artist by 
whom it was constructed) with a neutral gas, hydrogen, whose 
spectrum is known. 

*“ The spectra of different bodies in a gaseous state may be 
divided an several classes, each exhibiting peculiar characteris- 
tics, and the following considerations arise from the varied 
appearances they present. If the light received by the spec- 
troscope contains all the colours whose refrangibility increases 
from the red to the extreme violet, the continuous spectrum 
that 1s obtained 1s composed of an infinite number of super- 
imposed bands, of which each has the breadth of the slit as 
seen through the telescope. The Drummond light offers an 
example of this kind. If, on the contrary, the incident hght 
only contains a limited number of colours, the spectrum is dis- 
continuous, the luminous bands being separated by black spaces. 
These bands tend to become mere lines if the aperture of the 
shtis reduced. Hydrogen gas and chlorine, together with the 

VOL. II.—NO. IY. U 


266 ‘Plucker on Spectrum Analysis. 


vapours of iodine and bromine, offer examples under the con- 
ditions described in my memoir. 

“Tf the index of refraction of two successive colours differs 
very little, the two correspondmg bands are partially super- 
imposed the one over the other, and then, if a good telescope is 
used, the middle of the composite band exhibits a double in- 
tensity, sharply bounded by two bands, the breadth of which is 
equal to half that of the st. As the slit is narrowed more and 
more, the most luminous central portion diminishes in breadth, 
and disappears entirely when the breadth of the direct image of 
the slit is less than the distance of the median lines. The two 
simple bands are then separated by a dark space. The distance 
of lines in the midst of the two bands* is mdependent of the 
width of the sht. The beautiful double ray of mercury affords 
an illustration. , 

“Tf the incident ray contains a continuous series of colours, 
the intensity of which decreases rapidly as their refrangibility 
increases, while the colours immediately inferior in refraneibility 
are wanting, the corresponding portion of the spectrum pre- 
sents a space which is very luminous towards the red side, and 
becomes more and more obscure towards the violet. If similar 
Spaces succeed each other, the appearance is presented of a 
column grooved and illuminated by daylight. The blue and 
violet portions of the spectrum of nitrogen, when seen through 
a good telescope, behave m this way. Analogous results occur 
in the case of spaces whose illumination diminishes from the 
violet to the red, of which I will hereafter cite an example. If 
the incident light contains, within certain limits, continuous 
colours, with the exception of periodical interruptions, the spec- 
trum obtained is divided by double lines into a series of coloured 
spaces. I have counted in the red, orange, and yellow portion 
of the nitrogen spectrum eighteen coloured spaces, all of the 
same breadth. Ifthe spectrum is fine, we observe two of these 
spaces added to the shadow next the yellow, and three in the 
green that follows it. The spectrum of sulphur, which M. 
Geissler was the first to obtain, is entirely composed of similar 
coloured spaces, the breadth of which is augmented from the 
red to the opposite side. 

“Tf we admit that the active force developed by the heat that 
renders the gas incandescent 1s of the same order in the case of 
a continuous spectrum, as in a spectrum composed of one or 
many bands of homogeneous light, we must conclude that the 
intensity of these bands is infinitely greater than that of light 
of equal refrangibility m the continuous spectrum. It follows, 
onone hand, that we must reject all idea of absorption to ex- 
plain the appearance of similar bands in the place of a continuous 


* “ Milieu des deux bandes,’”? _ 


Plucker on Spectrum Analysis. 267 


spectrum ; on the other hand, it results that if we employ con- 
siderable macnifications, and augment the refraction, the bands 
in question will remain distinctly portrayed, while the continuous 
spectrum and the coloured spaces become almost imperceptible. 
Thus, when employing the telescope of the great spectroscope 
apparatus of Steinheil, I immediately perceived that.the bands 
of the homogeneous light which I admitted into the violet part 
of the nitrogen spectrum only existed under the conditions 
cited, while, in the case of hydrogen, 1 was able to confirm the 
existence, in the obscure part of the spectrum, of homogeneous 
bands of very feeble intensity. 

““ When, for the sake of giving a more elevated temperature 
to a rarefied gas, I caused the current occupying a larger space 
to pass through the capillary tube, I have observed, from the 
commencement of my researches, a change of colour accom- 
panying the change of intensity. In other words, the relative 
luminous intensity of the different homogeneous lines which 
usually constitute the spectra of gases, is seen to be a function of 
temperature. I subsequently showed that in the case of hydro- 
gen, the intensity of the three lines forming the essential part 
of its spectrum, do not diminish in equal proportion, and that 
the red line is extinguished first as we approach through the 
rarefaction of the gas to the point beyond which it cannot 
transmit the electric current. Latterly many experiments ap- 
peared to contradict my former observations, and this led me 
to fresh exertions, especially with a view to carry the elevation 
of temperature to a greater pitch than I had hitherto done. 

“If we employ spectrum tubes in which the gas is extremely 
rarefied, little is gained in the way of increasing the luminosity 
of the spectrum by pushing, beyond a certain limit, the power 
of the induction coil, whose discharge traverses the tube; but 
by operating in the manner indicated im a former memoir, a 
new course is opened to us. M. Hittorf, Professor of Chemis- 
try and Physics in the University of Munster, was kind enough 
to associate himself with my recent labours; and in confining 
myself at this moment to one class of phenomena, I shall select 
from our experiments those which illustrate the transformations 
experienced by the spectrum of the same gas, as its temperature 
is augmented more and more by the passage of currents of in- 
creased strength. In the first place I will allude to the spec- 
trum of hydrogen. If we pass the discharge of a large Ruhm- 
korff coil through a capillary tube, very narrow and not long, 
filled with this gas at a pressure of about half an atmosphere, a 
spectrum is obtamed similar to that afforded by employing-a 
small coil and a great rarefaction of gas; but if we interpose, 
as suggested by M. Ruhmkorff, a Leyden jar, to increase the 
energy of the current, the spectrum completely changes its 


268 Plucker on Spectrum Analysis. 


appearance. It becomes continuous ; the violet and blue lines 
no longer arise from the ground, which has become lustrous, 
and we notice at one extremity of the spectrum the red line be- 
come broader, and surpassing in brilliancy the adjacent parts. 
Lastly, if we direct the spectroscope towards the broad part of 
the tube surrounding the electrode, where the light, before 
.entering the capillary tube is less concentrated, an intermediate 
phenomencen is presented to our view. We still see the three 
primitive lines, but while the red one remains pretty much as 
before ; the two others appear in bloom, the violet more than 
the blue. 

** Nitrogen gas behaves ina manner altogether different ; the 
beautiful spectrum of this gas, as | at first obtamed it by means 
of the small induction apparatus, remains essentially the same 
when the great apparatus is used without the bottle and its ten- 
sion is auemented to about 100 millimetres. When, however, we 
introduce the Leyden jar, all is changed ; the new spectrum con- 
tains no trace of the old one: it 1s composed of a great number 
of beautiful lines of refrangibility one (partially separated by fine 
black lines), and not one of them is lke the former spectrum. 
Sulphur and selenium afford analogous results. The spectrum 
of oxygen is weak under the old conditions, but if the tension of 
the gas is about 100 millimetres it gives with the great induction 
coil, and the Leyden jar, a spectrum of great beauty, composed 
of lines of refrangibility one. The greater intensity of the 
current brings out a great number of new lines. The same 
thing happens with chlorine and iodine. 

“The former spectrum of the vapour of mercury was essen- 
tially composed of three brillant lines, of which one is double. 
In the new one, other lines are added, especially red lines, and 
a double orange line, which at first were not even indicated ; 
and at the same time the feeble lines on the ground of the first 
spectrum are less developed, as is the case with hydrogen. In 
this same spectrum of mercury, the green and orange rays, 
sharply bounded when the temperature is weak, dilate them- 
selves mere and more towards the red as the heat is increased.” 

Having thus illustrated the physical appearance of the spectra, 
M. Plucker makes the following remarks on their employment 
in chemical analysis :—‘‘ It seems that no compound body in a 
gaseous state can escape decomposition if we augment its tem- 
perature sufficiently. To effect this result, we introduce the 
gaseous body into a Geissler tube, then we heat the minute 
thread of gas in its capillary portion by means of an induction 
current. We then examine the incandescent thread of gas 
with a prism. In my former spectrum tubes a feeble current 
sufficed to obtain the spectrum of highly rarefied gas, but in 
this case the decomposition, if it occurs, is often partial. Two 


Plucker on Spectrum Analysis. 269 


of these tubes—one containing carbonic acid, and the other 
carbonic oxide—give the same spectrum, namely, that of the 
last gas, which is not essentially changed by augmenting the 
force of the induction coil: as beyond a certain limit the tem- 
perature of the gas is not increased. In the new tubes, con- 
taining gas of a greater density, a stronger coil is required than 
in the old tubes, to bring the gas to a given heat; but the gas 
assumes a much higher temperature as we increase the power 
of the coil. Thus, in two recent experiments we gave to the 
two gases a pressure of 100 millimétres, and illuminated them 
with discharges of a great Ruhmkorff coil. In discharging the 
apparatus in an ordinary way we obtained the ordinary spec- 
trum, that of the carbonic oxide ; but upon interposing a Leyden 
jar of convenient dimensions, we instantly descried the beautiful 
spectrum of oxygen, identical with that obtained when the tubes 
were filled with pure oxygen at the same pressure, and trans- 
mitted a current of electricity in the same way. . . . I therefore 
conclude, that at a lower temperature the carbonic acid is re- 
solved ito carbon and carbonic oxide, and at a higher one this 
latter gas is itself decomposed, whether we introduce it in the first 
istance into the tube, or obtain it by the action of the current 
upon carbonic acid. This is not all, for immediately after the 
decomposition the temperature falls, and the recomposition of 
oxygen and carbon ensues. 

“In citing these examples of the decomposition of bodies, 
as evidenced by spectral analysis, the decomposition of the 
vapour of water must not be passed over. We introduce water 
into the interior of the new tubes, and, before sealing them in a 
lamp, we boil the water to expel the air. If we then make the 
electric current pass, without the Leyden jar, we obtain only 
the three rays of hydrogen on a dark ground. With the addi- 
tion of the Leyden jar we get the oxygen spectrum also, clearly 
defined. This experiment illustrates the facility with which the 
current traverses hydrogen gas. If a rarefied gas contains the 
least trace of water, the water is decomposed, and the hydrogen 
rays, especially the red and blue, are exhibited in the clearest 
manner. If, for example, we cause the electric discharge to pass 
through a tube containing nitrogen which has been dried, but 
without extreme care, and we establish a communication with a 
mercurial evacuator, we see first, as we produce a vacuum, the 
beautiful spectrum of nitrogen, which is replaced by that of 
hydrogen as the limit of rarefaction 1s approached. As a third 
illustration, I shall take chloride of zinc. After having introduced 
a small quantity into the spectrum tube, the vacuum is made as 
complete as possible. We then obtain, on heating the tube, first 
the chlorine spectrum, shehtly developed, but easily recognizable; 
afterwards continuing to heat the gas, this spectrum, which at 


270 Plucker on Spectrum Analysis. 


first augments in intensity, gradually disappears and that of 
metallic zinc comes into view. At last we see only the spectrum 
of this metal, which is essentially composed of four lines emi- 
nently brilhant and sharply defined; one being red, more 
refrangible than the red ray of hydrogen, and the three others 
occurring in the regions of green and blue. If the tube is 
permitted to cool, we notice the phenomena in inverse order, 
the zinc spectrum disappearing first and being replaced by that 
of chlorme. Hxcepting the non-coincidence of its bright rays, 
chloride of cadmium comports itself like chloride of zinc. 

“Mr. Miller has lately presented to the Royal Soziety of 
London very remarkable photographs of the brilliant bands of 
the spectra of all the metals, but they do not seem to be as 
sharply defined as ours. The difference may probably be 
explained by the greater elevation of temperature of which his 
were produced. I conclude, from the facts previously cited, 
that these spectra were ‘en marche’ towards the continuous 
spectrum. 

“If we can employ asufficiently powerful induction coil, we 
may produce the spectral effects with gases having a pressure 
of one atmosphere or more. We might even pass a continued 
current of gas through the capillary tube imstead of closing it 
hermetically. A glass tube open at both ends and having an inch 
or so rendered capillary in the middle, with platina wires thrust 
up as far as the capillary portion, becomes a veritable chemical 
analyser. We place one of its extremities in communication with 
the apparatus in which the gas to be examined is developed, or 
with the neck of a retort yielding any vapour, and the fluid gas or 
vapour becomes incandescent as it passes’ the capillary portion 
of the tube, where the platina wires are connected with an induc- 
tion coil. If we wish to operate at ordinary pressures we let 
the gas escape freely at the other end of the analyser, and if we 
desire a lesser pressure it is easily obtained. ‘The essential 
character of the analysis thus briefly sketched is that it not 
only enables us to recognize particular substances that may 
enter into the composition of a given body, but to exhibit all 
its elements. ‘To do this in a sure and complete manner it is 
necessary to ascertain for each body the changes which its 
spectrum undergoes at each successive elevation of temperature. 
We must also take account of the greater or less facility which » 
different substances offer for the transmission of the current, 
and likewise not forget the transport of the substance of the 
electrodes. 

“ Up to the present M. Hittorf and myself have only touched 
the borders of the chemical question, and of other questions 
related to it, but the sphere of application of the new mode of 
analysis appears to us great.” 


Resting Eggs, or Statoblasts of a Plumatella. Zul 


RESTING EGGS, OR STATOBLASTS OF A 
PLUMATELLA. 


BY HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.S. 
(With an Illustration.) 


On the 29th June, 1861, the day being fine and hot, my atten- 
tion was called to an entangled mass floating in the large pond 
at the bottom of Hampstead Heath, behind Jack Straw’s Castle. 
On drawing a portion of it ashore by means of a landing hook, 
it was evident that the capture consisted of fresh water polyzoa. 
The coencecium (common house) or polypary was very compact, 
and composed of numerous tubes, having a multiplicity of 
openine’s ; but none of the branches projected far from the main 
stem, which clung to, and surrounded the long fine stalks of 
some defunct water plant. This mode of growth was more 
like that of certain marine forms of polyzoa than of any which 
I had been in the habit of findmg in ponds or streams; and 
as the° pocket lens could only afford general evidence of 
relation to the Plumatella family, I hastened home to call the 
microscope to my aid. A branching tuft of the polyp tubes 
was soon placed in a zoophyte trough, illuminated by Wenham’s 
parabola, and viewed under a two-thirds objective. The effect 
was splendid. The living flowers expanded freely, the tentacles 
assumed a pearly lustre, and the vibratmg cilia glowed like 
scintillating jewels as they caught the light. It was evident 
that the lophophore or “ crest-bearer,’’ from which the tentacles 
proceeded, was crescent-shaped, or, as it is technically termed, 
crescentic, and not circular ; and the tubes, taken separately, bore 
a strong resemblance to those of Plumatella repens ; but I had 
never seen or read of this species forming a colony in such a 
dense enveloping mass. Of course, a reference to Professor 
Allman’s splendid work on the Polyzoa was my first resource, 
but not finding the difficulty solved, I bottled up a good speci- 
men, and sent it by post to that able naturalist’s address. Un- 
fortunately, the creatures did not reach him alive, and this 
circumstance, together with a pressure of other engagements, 
prevented his settling the point, whether they could be identified 
or not, with any recorded species. My own impression was in 
favour of considering them as varieties of P. repens, as the 
tubes had neither furrow nor keel, and I noticed no characters 
that assimilated them more closely to any other member of the 
Plumatella family. 

I gave my specimens abundance of water im a large 
glass jar, in which some anacharis and myriophyllum were 
growing, and left them in an airy room, where I hoped they 


272 Resting Eggs, or Statoblasts of a Plumatella. 


would flourish. My house was at the time in a state of siege, 
assailed by bricklayers, carpenters, paimters, plumbers, and 
other enemies of scientific work, and from this cause my poly- 
zoan visitors did not receive the attention they deserved. After 
a week or two I returned to their examination, and found to 
my vexation that the whole colony had departed this mortal 
life. Their houses also were in a very dilapidated condition, 
quite unfit for preservation, and I could only console myself by 
noticing that the good polypides had made abundant provision 
for the perpetuation of their race, by leaving behind them 
thousands of statoblasts, or resting eggs. 

The generation of these creatures takes place in three modes. 
First, by the eggs developed in an ovary, attached by a short 
stem or peduncle to the endocyst, or internal and vital membrane 
of the cells. The male organs, which fertilize the eggs, occur 
in the same cells as the ovaries, and are connected with the 
funculus, literally, “little rope,” the name given to the flexible 
band by which the body of each polypide is moored to the 
bottom of its cell. The second mode of increase is by the 
growth of fresh cells, as off-shoots from the colony; and the 
third is by the production of statoblasts, which are probably 
only caducous* buds, that is, buds destined to fall off at a certain 
time, and wait for their development until appropriate circum- 
stances arise. Professor Allman could not detect any mode by 
which these statoblasts could be expelled durmg the hfe of the 
particular polypide in whose cell they are formed, but after the 
death of the animal, decomposition clears their way, and they 
find no difficulty in falling out. As a rule, they are objects of 
considerable beauty, more or less oval in form, and surrounded 
by a marginal ring of a different colour, and im which the cell 
structure makes a pretty pattern of the network kind. In 
Cristatella mucedi, remarkable for the locomotive properties of 
the entire colony, the statoblasts are round, and still further 
decorated with projecting spines. In the specimens under our 
notice, these objects were like those produced by undoubted 
Plumatella repens, and I was curious to see whether any of them 
would develop, and reproduce, or omit, the peculiarities of the 
maternal form. For this purpose hundreds, or thousands of 
them were placed in a glass jar full of water, and haying a few 
bits of anacharis for their vegetable companions. The summer 
ended, the autumn came, the autumn passed, but no appearance 
of activity was manifested by the little egg-buds, which either 
floated on the surface of the water, or adhered to the sides of 
the vessel. Occasionally I squeezed one between the glasses of 
a live box, and from the appearance of the contents, conjectured 


* Caducous (caducus, ready to fall), see Henslow’s Dictionary of Botanical 
Terms. 


riumatella emerging from Statoblasts. 


Resting Eggs, ov Statoblasts of a Plumatella. 273 


that they were in good health, although persisting in their 
inexplicable rest. The cold of winter was not likely to summon 
their dormant powers to exertion, so they were allowed to re- 
pose on a shady shelf, the glass jar being lightly covered over to 
exclude the dust. By spring time the “anacharis had died, and 
the water was reduced to half its bulk by evaporation, leaving 
many of the statoblasts high and dry on the glass. Fresh water 
was poured in, and the vessel removed to a lighter place. 

On the 18th of May a few of the statoblasts were disco- 
vered gaping, the shell having opened lke that of a walnut. 
A group were speedily transferred to a zoophyte cell, and 
placed on the microscope stage; one polypide appeared just 
out—just hatched, I would say, but we must remember that 
we have to do with a peculiar kind of bud rather than with a 
genuine egg; the tentacles of the new-born polypide were 
beautifully expanded, but for an hour or two it was impossible 
to discern the crescentic form, and it might easily have been 
taken for a Fredericella, whose tentacles are arranged in a 
beautiful bell-shaped pattern, like those of the common sea-side 
members of this most interesting group. As far as I could 
make out, the circular aspect arose from a close approximation 
of the two arms of the crest-bearer, or lophophore, and the in- 
conspicuous position taken by the tentacles on its inner side. 
In another specimen the exit from the shell went on under our 
eye, and the sketch which my wife made, and which forms a 
tinted plate, gives a good idea of how the infant polyzoon 
looked. 

The glass jar contaiming the main stock of statoblasts stood 
in my study window, which has a north aspect, so, for the 
sake of varying the circumstances, I placed a few dozen in a 
bottle, and exposed them to as much sun as a dismal summer 
afforded, on a southern greenhouse shelf, keeping off the ex- 
treme glare by a thin paper sereen. In this position three or 
four developed themselves, but the greater warmth did not 
exert as much influence as might have been supposed. The 
few specimens I obtained were used up in microscopic exami- 
mations, and a pause ensued, which was not broken till the 

22nd of August, when I noticed a few more young polypides in 
ae glass jar ; those in the bottle remained as before. Since 
that date I doubt whether any progress has taken place, and as I 
did not succeed in keeping any specimen long enough to form 
a series of new cells and branches, I cannot “tell whether they 
would have reproduced the compact entangled form or “ gone 
back,” as the florists say, to the simpler pattern in which the 
P. repens is usually found. 

Probably in a good sized fresh-water aquarium in which the 
natural conditions of a pond would have been more accurately 


274 Resting Eggs, or Statoblasts of a Plumatella. 


imitated than in my jar and bottle, the fate of the statoblasts 
might have been different. More might have developed, and 
those that emerged from their curious resting-house might have 
lived the full term of their race, and resembled the fruitful vine 
in the number of branches they would have put forth. 

As some readers may not be familiar with the charac- 
teristics of the polyzoa, a few words on that subject may 
not be out of place. In form they resemble the compound 
polyps, with which group they were formerly confounded, but 
their structure is more complex, and their zoological rank 
higher. The polyps have no distinct membranous stomach, 
but only a cavity with one orifice; they are, in fact, living 
bags, having, as Dr. Grant says, “a variable number of highly 
prehensile tubular tentacula round the mouth.” ‘The polyps 
belong to the sub-kingdom Celenterata, defined by Professor 
Greene in his excellent Manual* as “‘animals whose alimen- 
tary canal freely communicates with the somatic cavity” (i.e. 
general cavity of the body). Substance of the body made up 
of two foundation membranes, an outer cr extoderm, and an 
inner or endoderm, which correspond in mode of growth with 
the primitive layers of the germ; no distinct neural and 
heemal regions, and nervous system absent in most. Peculiar 
urticatory organs or thread cells usually present.” The polyzoa 
have a distinct digestive tube with two orifices, one for entrance, 
and the other for exit. Their tentacles are stiffer in appearance, 
and not warty looking, as in the polyps, and they are furnished 
with two rows of cilia, the motion of which is always up one 
side and down the other. The intestime is bent round, so that 
the anus lies near the mouth, and one nervous ganglion situated 
near the mouth is very easily seen in many species. This 
ganglion acts as a rudimentary brain, and seems the source of 
the nerve power belonging to each individual. Recently 
Dr. Fitz-Muller has discovered that these creatures also possess 
what he terms a ‘‘ colonial nervous system,’’+ which establishes 
a communication between each individual and the colony of 
which he forms a part. 

To return to my statoblasts: I may mention that I am still 
keeping them to see whether any further mstances of develop- 
ment will occur, and I should recommend any one who pos- 
sesses a fresh-water aquarium to endeavour to raise colonies of 
these very beautiful and highly interesting animals by similar 
means. 


* Manual of the Sub-kingdom Celenterata, by Joseph Reay Greene, B.A., 
Professor of Natural History, Queen’s College, Cork. Longman. 
+ See INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, No. vii. p. 67, vol. i. 


Pictet on the Age of Fossil Growps. 275 


PICTET ON THE METHOD OF DETERMINING 'THEH 
AGE OF FOSSIL GROUPS. 


M. F. J. Pictst, under the title of “ Discussion de quelques 
points Paleontologiques,” publishes, in the Bibliotheque Uni- 
verselle of Geneva, some very important comments on a dis- 
course delivered by Professor Agassiz, in reference to the 
classification of the Museum at Cambridge, United States, in 
which the last named philosopher observes :— 

“ Until now, geologists, in identifymg the horizons of the 
successive deposits which form the crust of our globe, have 
started with the idea, universally admitted, that animals of the 
same geological age are either identical, or closely related over 
wide geographical extents. Nothing is further from the truth 
than this hypothesis, and it suffices to compare the fauna of the 
present period in distant continents to see how much they 
differ. Ifthe remains of ancient times, belonging to the same 
geological periods, have, in general, appeared identical or closely 
related, that arises principally from the fact that they have 
been studied in the same geographical zones. Actually we find 
the same resemblance between the animals that live in the tem- 
perate zones of Hurope, Asia, and North America; but when 
we pass to other climates the scene changes completely. It 
was the same in past ages, aS we are taught by the tertiary 
mammalia in Southern Africa and in Australia, and I have no 
doubt this fact would be confirmed by more ancient formations 
as yet incompletely known. The specific differences between 
remains of the same age, found in deposits remote from each 
other, are more clearly demonstrated every day. Since I began 
to compare the fossils of America with those of Hurope, I have 
been led by degrees to infer that we should probably never be 
able to establish the specific identity of animals that lived at 
great distances from each other, although they were contempo- 
raneous. The doctrine of the identity of fossils of the same 
age requires great modifications. I am already certain that 
species of the same family, belonging to different epochs, but 
found in corresponding latitudes, are often more nearly related 
than species of the same age belonging to different zones. The 
time is rapidly approaching when zoological affinity alone will 
not be considered a sure criterion of contemporaneity ; nor will 
the most striking zoological differences be held sufficient 
proof of difference of geological age. I have arrived at this 
result, unexpected, and perhaps painful, to geologists, by a 
careful comparison of numerous ancient faunas, arranged in the 
manner which I have already explained. If this discovery 
renders, on one hand, the determination cf formations by means 


276 Pictet on the Age of Fossil Groups. 


of fossils, more difficult for those who are not familiar with 
zoology, it furnishes, on the other hand, the most instructive 
proof of the successive changes which have occurred at different 
periods on different parts of the surface of the globe, and it 
shows how, in the earlier ages, there existed, in different por- 
tions of the earth, combinations of living beings quite distinct 
from those which now occupy the same localities, and, at the 
same time, similar to those which at present exist in other 
quarters. In proof of this view, I now confine myself to men- 
tionmg the resemblance that exists between some extinct 
faunas of the Jurassic period, and the actual fauna of Australia. 
We can trace a similar resemblance between the extinct faunas 
of other periods, and the living faunas of other parts of the 
world. On another occasion, for example, I pointed out the 
resemblance between the fossil floras and faunas of Giningen 
and those of the temperate zone of the Atlantic states of North 
America.’’* 

Upon this passage M. Pictet pronounces the following 
comments :— 

““ We are quite in accord with M. Agassiz, that an identity 
of faunas is not in every case a proof that they were contem- 
porary, and that a difference between faunas does not always 
prove that they have belonged toa different geological age. 
But it is not sufficient for us to break up confidence in rules that 
have been generally admitted ; we must also show in what cases 
safe conclusions can be reached, and what methods must be 
pursued. We will commence by considering the case of an 
identity between two faunas. 

“ If two indentical faunas are in each other’s neighbourhood, 
stratigraphy has proved a thousand times that they must have 
been deposited in the same sea, either by showing that the 
beds which contain them are continuous, or by demonstrating 
that they occupy the same place in an analogous series. Nothing, 
according to us, nor according to M. Agassiz, shakes the gene- 
rally admitted assertion that identical faunas, situated im the 
same geographical region, are contemporaneous. 

“ Tf identical faunas are separated by great intervals on the 
surface of the earth, the question alters, and it may be that 
identity is no proof of contemporaneity. M. Agassiz, in the 
citation we have made, speaks of analogous faunas found in dif- 
ferent ages and at great distances. This singular agreement 
does not yet rest upon facts sufficiently ascertained, and, with- 
out wishing to contest its reality, we perceive rather a direction 
for the future labours of science than an acquisition already 
made. Such comparisons present great difficulty, for 1t becomes 


* Not having M. Agassiz’s lecture at hand, this passage is retranslated from 
M. Pictet’s article. 


Pictet on the Age of Fossil Groups. 277 


a question of analogies and not of identities, and there is great 
scope for personal peculiarities of appreciation. M. Agassiz, 
for example, evidently does not intend to assert that the fauna 
of Giningen is identical with that actually living in South 
America; he merely wishes to say that there exists, between 
these two populations, more or less intimate relations, resulting 
from the identity of certain genera, and an analogy between a 
portion of the species. We do not doubt that researches under- 
taken under this hypothesis, would furnish new and precious 
documents. 

““We may, however, while still considering the case of identi- 
cal faunas, separated by great geographical intervals, look at 
another side of the question, which has not yet been touched 
upon by the learned Director of the Cambridge Museum, and 
which is not directly connected with the arrangement proposed 
for his collections, but which appear to us to possess great 
interest. Ifa series of identical faunas find themselves over a 
long space parallel to a degree of longitude, it may be that, ac- 
cording to our view, these resemblances are associated with a 
series of identical, but not contemporary climates. We will cite 
an illustration that has been supplied by the study of an interest- 
ing memoir of M. de Strombeck, in which this geologist shows 
the parallelism of the cretaceous faunas from Hanover to the 
middle of France, to which Algeria may be added. A series of 
identical cretaceous faunas succeed each other throughout this 
long interval, and we find them well developed in Switzerland, 
where they form a precious intermediary deposit. At this day 
Hanover and Algeria have very different faunas, and it is 
probable that in ancient times the climate of these two regions 
produced an analogous result. If we consider ihe two cretace- 
ous faunas identical im Hanover and Algeria, it is probable that 
each lived in the two countries when they acquired a mean 
equal temperature, a circumstance that could not have taken 
place at the same epoch. We may well conceive the probability 
that this fauna lived in Hanover at an epoch when the earth 
was much more highly heated than it afterwards became, and 
that it always had a tendency to radiate and extend itself. In 
proportion as the climate changed, and the temperature be- 
came lower, the individuals that wandered towards the south 
could continue to exist, while those which journeyed northward 
would be destroyed. The centre of the fauna has thus been 
displaced, and by continuing this action it has successively 
occupied Germany, Switzerland, the basin of the Rhone, Pro- 
vence, and at last Algeria, where the climate adapted to it 
arrived at a later time. When this fauna thus arrived at its 
new southern limits, its northern lmits must have been also 
reached, and when it occupied the south of the geographical area, 


278 Pictet on the Age of Fossil Groups. 


it is very probable that it was extinguished in the north, and 
probably in the centre. We might find many analogous 
examples from which we should draw the conclusion that 
identical faunas, separated by great geographical spaces, may 
indicate identical climates which were not contemporaneous. Let 
us only remark, that as analogous causes produce similar 
effects, it will ordinarily happen that in different regions the 
series of faunas will themselves be identical. The identity of 
faunas, insufficient to prove absolute contemporaneity, will thus 
serve to show that they had a similar relative age in the series 
to which they belong. 

“If we now occupy ourselves with the case in which the 
faunas differ from each other, we find ourselves confronting an 
investigation a little more delicate and a little more difficult. 

“‘ In the case where the geographical distances between the 
faunas are not considerable, their difference will most often 
result from the circumstance that they were formed at different 
epochs. This is one of those facts which stratigraphy has so 
often put in evidence that we need not insist upon it. Ina 
given region we frequently find different faunas superimposed in 
an identical order that proves their regular succession in time. 
But this rule is subject to important exceptions. Just as in 
natural seas, the association of different species follows the 
nature of the sea-bed, that of the waters, their depths, etc. ; so, 
during the same geological periods, different faunas may have ~ 
been deposited on muddy beds, on rocky banks, in profound 
depths, etc. Geologists and palwontologists have for a long 
time demonstrated these facts, and have/given the names of 

‘muddy facies,’ ‘ coralline facies, Clee to. deposits in which 
contemporary, but dissimilar fauna have been preserved. 
Hyery one knows the curious researches of Edward Forbes, on 
the different associations which the existing seas present under 
analogous circumstances; and, more recently, M. Alphonse 
Milne-Hdwards has given a new extension to these facts by the 
discovery of species altogether new and unknown, obtained from 
very great depths. We may therefore say that, according to 
circumstances, the difference between faunas of the same geo- 
graphical region may sometimes correspond with the same 
epoch, sometimes with a different epoch. 

“Tt remains to be seen if, besides the stratigraphical 
evidence, which is alone incontestable, the paleontologist is 
completely disarmed when he endeavours to deal with these par- 
ticular cases. We do not think so, and we believe, on the con- 
trary, that the nature and composition of the faunas, generally 
bear with them the answer to these questions. ‘Two dissimilar 
parallel faunas are ordinarily characterized by biological differ- 
ences, manifested by the existence of certain genera, and the 


Pictet-on the Age of Fossil Groups. 279 


absence of others. Thus we easily recognize a fauna deposited 
in a muddy bottom by the presence of genera which live buried 
in mud, and by the absence of others which have need of 
naked rocks, such as corals and perforating mollusks. Inverse 
characters distinguish a coralline and a litoral fauna. We 
might say that these dissimilar parallel faunas form the com- 
plement one of the other. 

«Two dissimilar successive faunas present inverse characters. 
If we take them together in their entirety, and over a certain 
extent, we shall see that in general they do not exhibit 
biological differences, that they are composed of the same 
genera; but that the species have been modified, although 
retaining the same sort of life. We shall easily comprehend 
these facts on comparing two successive faunas of the same 
facies—muddy, or coralline. 

““Tt is evident that there is no general rule for the practical 
resolution of these difficulties, and that these directions, dic- 
tated by ajudicious method, presuppose an ample collection of 
paleeontological and stratigraphical facts. 

“ Lastly, there remains the case in which dissimilar faunas are 
separated by great geographical spaces, and here we recognize 
the truth of the opinion expressed by M. Agassiz. There is a 
greater difference between two contemporaneous faunas sepa- 
rated by great geographical distances, than between two faunas 
of the same region, but of different age, provided the epochs are 
not veryremote. ‘This fact is incontestable, and may be proved 
by comparisons drawn from all periods. An example, taken 
from recent epochs, will suffice to make its bearme known. 
The tertiary fauna of Australia is much like the modern fauna 
of that country, and not at all like the tertiary fauna of 
America and Hurope. It is the same with these last, and we 
find, particularly in the fauna, so abundant and so remarkable, 
that occupied the American continent before the present 
period, all the types that were precursors of the fauna that we 
find there to-day, such as the edentata, the apes with thirty-six 
teeth, etc. In each country the fauna of one epoch derives its 
characteristics from two factors: the one resulting from that 
constant law of modification of which every part of paleeontology 
supplies the proof; the other, and less powerful, is the condition 
of the organization of the preceding fauna that served for a 
point of departure.” 

“Tt is not necessary that we should call the attention of our 
readers to the importance of these facts, in reference to the 
explanations we seek in order to elucidate the cause by which 
the succession of faunas takes place.” 


280 The Fossil Human Skeleton from Guadaloupe. 


THE FOSSIL HUMAN SKELETON FROM 
GUADALOUPKE. 


Letter of Apmiran Sir ALEXANDER CocHRANE respecting the 
Fossin Human SxKeirron, from GuapaLourn, now in the 
British Museum. Communicated by S. P. Woopwarp, 
F.G.S. 


Tue followmg document seems never to have been printed, 
and is not so much as mentioned by Mr. Charles Keerig, in 
his letter to Sir Joseph Banks, published in the Philosophical 
Transactions of the Royal Society (vol. civ. p. 107, 1814). Never- 
theless it appears to be worth preserving, not only because 
it is the narrative of the most important person concerned in 
the acquisition of this celebrated fossil, but imasmuch as it 
corrects several slight imaccuracies in the popular versions 
of the discovery, and suggests some considerations which have 
been overlooked by all other writers. 

The occurrence of fossil skeletons at Guadaloupe was first 
noticed in 1805, by M. Manuel Cortés y Campomanés, an 
officer of the French government. ‘They were described by 
General Ernouf, governor of the colony, in a letter to M. 
Faujas Saint-Fond (Annales du Muséum, vol. v. 1805), and 
afterwards by M. Lavaisse, in his Voyage a la Trinidad (1813). 
Hrnouf says that on that part of the windward (or north-east) 
side of the Grande-Terre, called La Moule, skeletons are found 
enveloped in “ masses de madrépores pétrifiés,”” very hard, and 
situated within the line of high water. M. Lavaisse adds that 
the bed with human skeletons is nearly an Hnghsh mile in 
leneth ; and that he found in it hatchets and other implements, 
made of a basaltic or porphyritic rock, as well as bones. No 
mention is made of pottery. 

It appears then that the skeletons were not found “on the 
main-land of Guadaloupe,” as represented by Dr. Mantell and 
Sir C. Lyell, but on the adjoming island of Grande-Terre, 
which is separated indeed by a very narrow channel. It is 
described as a flat limestone country, consisting chiefly of the 
debris of corals, with here and there single hills of shell-hme- 
stone; while Guadaloupe, properly so called, is entirely 
volcanic. 

The block of stone brought home by Admiral Cochrane 
was originally of a flattened oval form, about a foot and a half 
in thickness, and weighed nearly two tons. There were no 
marks of the tool upon it except the few holes evidently made 
to assist in raising the block, and it had very much the appear- 
ance of a huge nodule disengaged from a surrounding mass. 
The situation of the skeleton in the block was so superficial, 


The Fossil Human Skeleton fron Guadaloupe. 281 


that its presence in the rock on the coast had probably been 
indicated by the projection of some of the more elevated parts 
of the left arm. ‘The bones, when first laid bare by the 
Museum workman, were soft, and had a mouldering appear- 
ance; but after an exposure for some days to the air, they 
acquired a considerable degree of hardness. Sir H. Davy 
ascertained that they still contained part of their animal matter. 
The rock is calcareous, with traces of phosphate of lime (found 
by Dr. Thomson), and was said to be harder than statuary 
marble. It has a yellowish-grey colour, and is formed of dis- 
integrated white madrepore, with a few fine particles of red 
madrepore, and occasional fragments of those corals; it con- 
tained also the shell of a recent land snail (Heliw acuta), and 
the “magpie” Trochus (7. pica), a common sea-shell of that 
coast. 

This subject is also treated of by Baron,George Cuvier, in 
his famous Discours sur les [tévolutions dela Surface dw Globe 
(Hd. 3, Paris, 8vo, 1825; originally published in connection 
with his Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles, of which the best 
edition is the 4th, 8vo, Paris, 1854, with 4to Atlas). After 
referring to the skeleton obtained with so much labour by 
General Hrnouf, which came into the possession of the English, 
he says that more recently General Donzelot had extracted 
another example, now placed in the Cabinet du Roi (Jardin des 
Plantes), at Paris, and of this he gives a description and figure. 
It was imbedded in a softer sandstone, also containing a recent 
land shell (Bulimus Guadalupensis, Fer.) of a species still 
inhabitmg the island. ‘The lower jaw is preserved, but the 
skull is wanting, as in the former specimen. ‘The other skele- 
ton is extended in the usual position of the burial; but this 
has the knees doubled up, and seems to have been interred in 
the sitting position customary among the Caribs. They may 
have belonged to individuals of two dilferent tribes. General 
Hrnouf explains the circumstances by reference to a tradition 
of a battle and a massacre on this spot, of a tribe of Galibis 
by the Caribs, about the year 1710. The name Galibi was said 
to have belonged to an ancient tribe of Caribs of Guiana, but 
according to a suggestion of Sir Joseph Banks, it may have 
originated in the substitution of the letter J for 7, in the word 
Caribee. 

The only other article of any importance connected with 
this subject is a Report by Dr. James Moultrie, on a Skull of 
the Guadaloupe Fossil Human Skeleton (communicated by Dr. 
Shepard to Silluman’s American Journal of Science and Art, 
vol. xxx. p. 861, New Haven, 1837). The remains consisted of 
four cranial bones, a fragment of the lower jaw, and the lower 
part of a thighbone, imbedded in a matrix exactly like a 

VOL, 11.—NO. IY. 


282 The Fossil Human Skeleton from Guadaloupe. 


portion of the rock given by Mr. Kcenig, from the British 
Museum specimen, to which they were said to have originally 
belonged. They were brought from Guadaloupe by M. L’Her- 
miniére, and placed in the museum of the Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society of South Carolina, in August 1816, and were 
purchased in the November followmg by the Medical College 
of the State, for its Museum in Charleston. ‘“ These relics,” 
says Dr. Moultrie, “have been supposed to belong to the head 
of an individual of the Carib race. This is undoubtedly a 
mistake. The anterior posterior diameter is too short, the 
occipital region too flat, and the lateral and vertical develop- 
ments too full, upon a reconstruction of the cranium, to justify 
such a supposition. Compared with the cranium of a Peruvian 
in the Museum of the Medical College of the State of South 
Carolina, the craniological similarity manifested between them 
is too striking to permit us to question their national identity.” 

Without attaching too much importance to this ethnological 
opinion, it may yet be doubted whether the interment of the 
skeletons was quite so recent as supposed by General Hrnouf. 
Admiral Cochrane has suggested the probability that it took 
place before the sea had encroached upon that portion of the 
shore, so as to cover it at high water, a change of no great 
amount, as the tides in the Antilles only amount to two or 
three feet ; and the volcanic activity of La Soufiriére, in Guada- 
loupe, may well have caused such a slight oscillation of level on 
a neighbouring shore. The beach must have consisted of loose 
sand at the time of the interment of the bodies, and the 
process of solidification may have taken place gradually, as 
indicated by the subsidence and displacement of some of the 
bones. The narrative of Admiral Cochrane, and the statement 
of Mr. Koenig, equally convey the impression that the coral 
sand formed a sort of concretionary mass around the bodies, 
which doubtless supplied the phosphoric acid since detected m 
the stone. If Guadaloupe was densely wooded like most of 
the West Indian Islands when first discovered by Europeans, 
it would have been equally natural for the savage mhabitants 
to guard against hostile intrusion, or settle their own private 
differences, and bury their dead on the open sandy shore. 
There are great accumulations of shell-sand at the Island of 
Ascension, described by Mr. Darwin, and to them the turtles 
come to bury their eggs: it sometimes happens that the beach ~ 
consolidates before the young are hatched, and when quarried 
for building purposes, the petrified eges containing bones of 
the little turtles are exposed to view, as in the specimen pre- 
sented by Mrs. Kenyon to the Geological Society. Deposits of 
calcareous sand are also cemented by the percolation of fresh 
water, as mentioned by Sir Alexander Cochrane. ‘The ancient 


The Fossil Human Skeleton from Guadaloupe. 283 


province of Pamphylia, in Asia Minor, is described by Professor 
H. Forbes and Captain Spratt as being wholly composed of 
travertine, full of holes and caverns, in which innumerable 
streams diappear from sight to burst forth afresh after a 
passage underground. On this coast the beaches are all petri- 
fied, and the fisherman who runs his boat ashore upon what, 
appears to be a bank of sand or shingle, will find her bottom 
stove in upon arock. The admiral refers to the bone-breccia 
of Gibraltar, in terms which make it desirable to say that the 
rock itself is a mass of gray secondary limestone, of uncertain 
age, containing Terebratule, similar to 7’. fimbria of the infe- 
rior oolite; and that the reddish coloured rock with monkey- 
bones is only found in caves and fissures. It is a modern 
deposit, such as occurs in all limestone countries; in this case 
the caverns having been much frequented formerly by soldiers 
of the garrison and pic-nic parties, numerous tobacco pipes 
and chicken-bones have become mingled with human remains 
and those of the older natives of the rock. 


(Cory or Lurrer.) 
64, WELBECK STREET, August 27, 1813. 


“My Lorp—The stone that I brought from Guadaloupe, of 
which I spoke to your lordship, was found near to the port of La 
Moulle, situated on the Windward side of Grande Terre. The French 
Government had directed this and another that was discovered to be 
carefully cut from the Rock, an operation very difficult to effect, 
from their position being within the line of high water, consequently 
the workmen could only be employed when the tide had receded 
from the Shore, and to preserve the Body entire they were under 
the necessity to undermine it, carefully removing the surrounding 
Rocks. The first that was brought round to the seat of Govern- 
ment was I understand sent to France in a Ship of War, and this 
was to have followed had the Island not been taken at the period it 
was. The expense of cutting out the one I brought home I was 
told exceeded three thousand Pounds, but of this I can speak 
with no kind of certainty, as the administration carried with them 
all their Books and Papers. By a man of considerable abilities in 
mineralogy, now resident at Guadaloupe, I was informed that the 
body contained within this stone lies in a diagonal position, the side 
appearing on the upper edge of the stone, he described this to me 
_ and pointed out the arm and some other parts. I had it im con- 
templation to saw it in two, so as to have cut the body asunder in 
a line from head to foot, I afterwards thought it better that it should 
be conveyed to Hngland in its present state. There is no trace in 
the History of the Island that can lead to the cause of this extra- 
ordinary petrefaction, nor have I heard of any conjecture as to its 
original formation. My idea is that previous to the discovery of 
America the inhabitants were in the habit of buryig their dead 


28 4 Lnfe in the Deep Sea. 


near the Sea in the Sand, the dryness of which had kept the body 

‘in a state of preservetion until the Sand had formed anincrustation 
round it, in this it may have been assisted by the filteration of 
Water from the Sea, which is known in that Country to contain 
much calcareous matter, as is visible in the formation of the white 
coral; in many places the spring Water has the same effect, which 
probably was an agent on the present occasion, as the Sea appears 
to have gained considerably upon the Sand in that Quarter by its 
annual progress; that part which was originally dry became sub- 
mersed, and now forms the Rocks upon the Shore, out of which 
these ‘Galibies’ or human Bodies have been cut (this bemg the 
name given by the French Chemists). 

‘‘ At Gibraltar I have observed many bones in the Lime stone 
of which that Rock is composed that resembled those of the human 
Body, but upon examination they were discovered to be of the 
Monkey Tribe. I have also observed there the constant increase 
of Matter occasioned by the filteration of Water from the Rock, now 
if one of those Animals happened to die under this filteration, the 
deposited Matter would soon form en incrustation round the body, 
altho’ this could not take place at Guadaloupe in the same manner 
as at Gibraltar, I still consider them as analogous to each other, as 
the same effects are I believe produced in many parts of England. 

“7 submit these my ideas with much diffidence, well knowing 
that upon the Stone being inspected more able conjectures will be 
formed by those better competent to decide the question. 

““T have the honour to be your Lordship’s 
“‘ Most obedt. humble Servt. 


“* ALEXR. COCHRANE. 
“The Honble. Lord Melville, ete. etc, ete.” 


LIFE IN THE DEEP SEHA.* 


THERE is a curious tendency in the human mind to allow itself 
to be misled by negative evidence. It arises chiefly from the- 
conservative spirit of indolence which does not like to be dis- 
turbed in its repose, and which is better satisfied to believe that 
things do not exist, because we have not found them, than to 
undertake the labours ofa fresh search. There is likewise a readi- 
ness to establish a scientific orthodoxy upon insufficient evidence, 
and to resent, as a pestilent heresy, whatever facts, opinions, 
or conclusions militate against the canons of credence which 
have been arbitrarily laid down. A good philosophical training 
removes prejudices, and establishes a readiness to believe upon 
sufficient proof being adduced, propositions that contradict its 
previous ideas. But while protessed students of science feel 


* The North Atlantic Sea Bed. Part I, By E. C. Wallich, M.D., F.LS., 
F.G.S. Van Voorst. 


Tife in the Deep Sea. 285 


this influence in the earlier portions of their career, they often 
suffer a psychological ossification as age creeps over them, and 
they become as great opponents of novelty as if the powers of 
knowledge were “exhausted and nothing new could possibly be 
true. Of course, as our store of facts grows larger, and sound 
induction establishes a larger number of principles from which 
accurate deductions can be made, many of the discoveries of 
science will simply realize anticipations previously formed ; but 
we must still expect that Nature will be for ever a region of 
wonder and surprise, in which many things that were undreamt 
of, or which were even inconceivable before their discovery, 
will come to us with all the unquestionable credentials of belief. 

Hvery department of science can offer illustrations of these 
views ; but in none have old conceptions been more completely 
revolutionized than im marine zoology, so far as relates to the 
inhabitants of the profound depths of the sea. It was assumed 
that life rapidly diminished with increasing profundity, and 
that our plummets soon arrived at a region where no ‘ dim. 
beams,” “ amid the streams,” “ wove their network of coloured 
heht, ” but where the world of waters rested for ages in unbroken 
silence and lifeless gloom. ‘There was, however, little excuse 
for the extent to which these opinions were carried ; for, as Dr. 
Wallich reminds us, the late Sir John Ross published in 1819 
en account of his having obtaimed in Baffin’s Bay various 
“sea-worms,’ “shrimps,” and other creatures from “ depths 
greatly exceeding those at which animal life was supposed to 
exist; and nearly thirty years subsequently Sir James Ross also 
reported having dredged up living creatures from great depths 
in the Antarctic seas ;”’ but these important discoveries met 
with no attention, and it may be fairly said that the capture 
of the deep sea starfishes by the “ Bulldog” was the first 
incident that materially modified pre- -existine and erroneous 


. . 5 . . 
views. ‘lo show the process of reasoning adopted by distin- 


guished men in reference to this subject, Dr. Wallich quotes 
Mr. Page’s Advanced Text Book of Geology, that, “ according to 
experiment, water at the depth of 1000 feet is compressed < one 
three hundred and fortieth of its own bulk, and at this rate of 
compression we Anow that at great depths animal and vegetable. 
life, as known to us, cannot possibly exist.” If Mr. Page had 
written ‘“‘we guess,’ instead of ‘we know,” he would have 
more accurately described the groundwork of a decision which. 
naturalists had arrived at by common consent, without either 
examining the decp sea bed to ascertain what it really con- 
tained, or without acquainting themselves with some of the 
principal conditions that would determine whether or not it 
could offer the means of existence to any living thing. In the 


same spirit which dictated Mr. Page’s remarks, Professor Philips, 


286 Life in the Deep Sca. 


in his Origin and Succession of Life on the Harth, expresses the 
belief that at 300 fathoms hfe is extimct, thus completely 
ignoring the 800 fathoms sounding from which Sir John Ross 
brought up a caput medusce, and the various creatures he 
obtaimed at a somewhat smaller depth. 

In science, as in other spheres of human activity, au unrea- 
soning credulity often follows an equally unreasonable scepticism, 
and we are glad to notice that Dr. Wallich, while laudably 
anxious as ‘‘ King of the Deep Sea,” to increase the number 
of his subjects, boldly resists arguments in their favour, which 
although tempting are not conclusive. Thus Professor Hhren- 
berg assumed that the presence of undecomposed fleshy matter 
(sarcode) in foramenifera, whose shells were found at very 
great depths, was a proof that they had been alive in the 
situation in which they were discovered; but Dr. Wallich 
- demonstrates the fallacy of this reasoning, although he expects 
its conclusion will ultimately prove to be correct, and that 
hereafter specimens will be obtained whose vital movements will 
leave the question in no doubt. 

Before examining the circumstances under which deep sea 
organisms live, we will advert the most startling acquisitions 
which Dr. Wallich made, especially to his famous starfish hawl. 
He tells us the sounding was taken in lat. 59 27’ N.; long. 
26° 41’ E., about halfway between Cape Farewell and the north- 
west coast of Ireland. The depth was 1260 fathoms, and 
“adhering to the last fifty fathoms of the line, which had rested 
on the ground for several moments, were thirteen Ophiocome, 
varying in diameter across the arms from two to five mches.” 
These animals moved their arms after reaching the deck. The 
starfishes so remarkably obtained appeared to be living in the 
midst of their “normal haunts.”’? In their digestive cavity was 
found a quantity of fresh-looking globigerine, and they seem to 
have been associated with creatures of a still higher type. Thus 
we read ‘in these soundings (including that in which the star- 
fishes were obtained) taken in the undermentioned positions 
and depths,—namely, lat. 59° 27’ N., long. 26° 41’ W., depth 1260 
fathoms ; lat. 58° 23’ N., long. 48° 50’ W., depth 1913 fathoms ; 
and lat. 56° 43’ N., long. 11° 55’ W., depth 1268 fathoms,— 
many cylindrical tubes occurred, varying from one-eighth to one- 
half an inch in length, and from one-fiftieth to one-seventieth of 
an inch in diameter. ‘These were built up almost exclusively of 
small globigerine shells, and still more minute calcareous 
debris cemented together. Two or three such tubes were 
found by me in each of these soundings; but I failed to extract 
the animals from them in a sufficiently perfect condition to 
admit of identification. J am nevertheless able to state posi- 
tively that the tubes contained some species of Annelid, and 


Life in the Deep Sea. 287 


think it is highly probable that certain borings, to be seen on 
forameniferous shells in the same deposits, may have been 
effected by it. But whether this be the case or not, it is quite 
clear that an Annelid lives at the depths indicated, and there 
builds up its tenement.” 

At 682 fathoms Dr. Wallich met with a Serpula, and 
a cluster of apparently living polyzoa, and also a minute 
living Spirorbis. From a depth of 445 fathoms he fished up a 
couple of living “‘ amphipod Crustaceans,”’ and a “ filamentous 
Annelid,” and when we consider how these creatures could ac- 
commodate themselves to such localities, we have to take into 
account the “‘ extraordinary fact that the Ophiocome, the Ser- 
pula, the Spirorbis of the deep soundings,—one and all belong 
to well-known littoral species.” From these facts Dr. Wallich 
observes: “ We are irresistibly led to the inference that their.ac- 
climatization must have kept pace, during a vast sequence of 
generations, with the changes going on in the portion of the 
sea bed inhabited by them, and hence that, under sufficiently 
favourable circumstances, species may accommodate themselves 
to conditions differing so widely from those under which they 
were originally created, that their subjection to them, under 
circumstances less favourable, mevitably results in their extinc- 
tion.” 

From what is known of deep sea life, we should be cautious in 
pronouncing judgment upon the far deeper portions of the 
ocean bed than our investigations have yet reached. There 
may be, probably is, a limit to the descending zones of life, but 
where it lies, seems rather for experiment than for deductive 
reasoning to tell. The more immediate question for solution is, 
how the creatures that have been discovered manage to live, 
under circumstances differing so widely from those in which we 
are accustomed to trace the mutual relations and dependance of 
animal and vegetable forms. Vegetable structures have not 
been found alive at greater depths than 2400 feet, while animals 
are now known to exist at 15,000 feet below the surface level. 
If any sort of plant lives much below the above-mentioned 
depth, it must perform its functions without the stimulus of 
light; and if animals exist far below the regions of vegetable 
life, they must be released from that dependance upon the lat- 
ter, which we have been accustomed to regard as an universal 
law. Such are the interesting problems which the marine zo0o- 
logist has to solve. 

The pressure of great depths only opposes itself to hfe 
under peculiar forms. At a depth of a mile it amounts to 
2640 lbs. on every square inch, or 160 times as much as we 
have to sustain on the surface of the globe. A close vessel 
would need immense strength to resist anything of the 


bo 


38 Life in the Deep Sea. 


kind, but if the pressure from within can equal that from 
without, its physical force would not necessarily destroy any 
organism exposed to its effects. Dr. Wallich judiciously indi- 
cates the difference between certain well-known experiments 
and the conditions under which deep sea creatures live. Thus, 
“in the case of pieces of wood and meat, and corked bottles con- 
taining air, which have been sent down to great depths, in 
order to demonstrate the effects of pressure, it is evident that 
precisely those conditions are present which are never to be 
met with in creatures constituted to live under it. In short, 
they prove too much; for they prove clearly that, in defiance 
of all obstacles, a state of equilibrium is rapidly engendered 
between the interior and the exterior of the wood, the mutton, 
and the bottles, and that whenscever this takes place no further 
thange is experienced. If suddenly submerged, that is to say, 
before the pressure has time to overcome the resistance of the 
cellular and fibrous tissues of the two first, and of the earth 
employed 1 in the last, diminution of bulk antl consequent com- 
pression of the stz ~acture must inevitably result; but, on the 
other hand, if the submergence be gradual, the mieten in 
bulk is by no means a necessary consequence, and the change 
brought about is a simple displacement of a lighter medium by 
a heavier, according to a well known law of fluids.” This is no 
doubt right in principle, but scarcely correct in detail, as all 
portions of an organism may not be thus permeable, and those 
which the heavier fluid cannot penetrate, must be subject to 
the pressure which it exerts on all sides. It will, however, be 
admitted without difficulty, that marime animals like the star- 
fishes or the annelids of Dr. Wallich’s dredgings would not be 
injured by the weight of water, if gradually submerged ; and 
having disposed of one di fficulty of deep sea life, let us turn to 
another, 4 in which the function of respiration is concerned. 
Some valuable experiments on board the French ship 
“ Bonité” give us an msight into the quantity of gaseous matter 
existing in the water at different depths, which appears, within 
the limits investigated, to increase as the surface is left behind. 
From these investigations, and on other grounds, Dr. Wallich 
concludes that “‘ smce the tendency of fluids to absorb gaseous 
bodies is constant under all circumstances, although, as already 
stated, the quantity they are capable of appropriating increases 
with the pressure, it follows that the deeper the stratum of 
yater, the greater must be the amount of gaseous matter held 
in solution by it.” But the ocean is not a closed vessel, in 
which the hquid and the gas are squeezed together without 
possibility of escape, and if water at a mile down contains more 
air than the strata above it, the effect must be produced by the 
operation of a powerful attraction increasing with the compres- 


ee ee 


fife in the Deep Sea. 289 


sion and depth, so that every layer of water drags the air from 
the layer above it, and is in turn robbed by the stratum be- 
neath itself. This may be so, but we do not think it is proved 
to be the case, in an increasing ratio throughout all depths. 
The “ Bonité” experiments were not conducted at great depths, 
the greatest being only 2243 Paris feet. They seem however to 
show that, while the quantity of nitrogen is dimmished as the 
pressure is augmented, that of carbonic acid and oxygen is 
considerably increased, and might accumulate to a deleterious 
extent if it were not rendered innocuous by the constant for- 
mation of carbonate of lime. 

Within considerable limits of downward range, we may 
conclude from the preceding facts, that deep sea creatures are 
provided with the means of breathing in water, in the same 
way as their similarly organized inhabitants of the ocean nearer 
the surface level; but how do they feed? The starfish may de- 
vour the humble creature that inhabits the forameniferous shell, 
but what is the latter to do when dinner-time comes? Dr. 
Walhch admits the difficulty of furnishing an answer without 
wo yealing to a process of nutrition for which he says there is 
ao acknowledged precedent. Itis the custom of scientific men, 
apon insufficient evidence, and im the face of well-known facts, 
to assume that no animal can assimilate inorganic matter that 
has not previously been brought within the vital circle by 
vegetable forms. Dr. Wallich conjectures that if the Protozoa* 
can eepeleus from the water the carbonate of lime to form their 
shells, they may also be able to make a similar direct use of 
other morganic materials to serve as food. It is certainly, as 
he says, in vain that we attempt to establish a definite line of 
demarcation between the two kingdoms of nature, and although 
some philosophers still “stand upon the ancient ways,” the 
majority are disposed to surrender the notion that the lowest 
livmg forms can be distinctly divided into animals and plants. 
Further researches may show more clearly the gradutions 
by which animal and vegetable characteristics are blended 
together ; but if respiration enables the animal to assimilate the 
oxygen of the air, and, through the introduction of salts of iron 
into the stomach, that metal finds its way into the blood, the 
first link of the chain of connection is found in the highest forms 
of animated being. 

The geological importance of Dr. Wallich’s researches is very 
ereat, as strata cannot now be considered to have been formed 
in shallow seas, merely on account of their containing the 
remains of animals that we are accustomed to associate with 
moderate depths, nor are the biological aspects of the new 


* Literally “first living things”—that is to say, simple or elementary crea- 
tures, at the beginning of the zoological scale, 


290 Life in the Deep Sea. 


truths less smgular and instructive. From a priori reasoning 
it might have been imagined thatif, through long ages, a littoral 
Species of an animal so highly organized as a starfish had 
become acclimated to totally different conditions of depth, 
pressure, darkness, and aeration, it would also have under- 
gone constitutional changes that would have been reflected 
in its structure, but no such alteration seems to have taken 
place in the subjects of Dr. Wallich’s investigation. We 
inquire whether the deep sea ophiocomze which belong to a 
littoral species were themselves in earlier life the occupants of 
shallower waters, and made a voluntary or involuntary migra- 
tion to the depths below; or whether they were the born 
children of the abyss, the lineal descendants of some pilgrim 
fathers of their race whose wanderings date back to the period 
when changes of level and in the distribution of land and water 
necessitated an alteration of their abode. The Ophiocoma 
granulata appears to be a creature of determined adhesion to a 
particular type. It ranges from the confines of the Arctic 
circle to the British shores, able to make itself at home from 
ten fathoms to 1260, and in either of these extreme conditions, 
or in any of their intermediaries, to rear a family for the per- 
petuation of its name. 

No similar adaptability seems to belong to any member of 
the vegetable world. Dr. Walliich met with no proper Alge 
below two hundred fathoms, and his deep sea dredging only 
yielded Diatoms whose frustules ‘indicated a molecular condi- 
tion of the protoplasmic matter, differmg so materially from 
that observable in similar organisms taken in a living condition 
in shallow water as to render it certain that the vegetable life 
ceases at a limit far short of that to which animal life has ever 
been shown to extend.” ‘This assertion may be too dogmatic 
to suit the actual condition of our knowledge; but if it should 
be found that there are regions m which, so to speak, every 
animal is his own vegetable, it will reveal to us fresh secrets 
pertaining to the great mysteries of organization and life. 

A book like Dr. Wallich’s would naturally command a large 
circle of readers, and we regret that its mode of publication will 
restrict it toa very few. Science is not so profitable that many of 
its votaries can aftord fifteen shillings for a stout quarto pamphlet, 
offered as an instalment of the entire work. We can hardly 
imagine that the profundity of his researches appeared to so able 
an observer to necessitate a corresponding elevation of the price 
of the narrative in which they were enshrined, and we should hike 
to know whether he has been a victim of the “‘ Lords Commis- 
sioners of the Admiralty,” under whose sanction, the title-page 
informs us, the North Atlantic Sea Bed has been brought 
out, or whether his worthy publisher, who has done so much 


he 


SS 


eS eee 


Life in the Deep Sea. 291 


for zoological science, determined in this case to address him- 
self exclusively to that very limited class whose pecuniary and 
cerebral developments go hand in hand. ‘The less wealthy 
student to whom costly pamphlets are unattainable luxuries need 
not, however, lament his fate, as a concluding extract from 
Dr. Wallich will give him the cream of the whole matter, and 
show, for his economical edification, that : 

1. “The conditions prevailing at great depths, although 
differing materially from those which prevail near the surface of 
the ocean, are not incompatible with the maintenance of life. 

2. ‘‘ Assuming the doctrine of single specific centres to be 
correct, the occurrence of the same species in shallow water 
and at great depths, proves that it must have undergone the 
transition from one set of conditions to the other with impunity. 

3. “There is nothing in the nature of the conditions pre- 
vailing at great depths to render it impossible that creatures 
originally, or through acclimatization, adapted to live under 
them should become capable of living in shallow water, provided 
the transitions be sufficiently gradual, and hence it is possible 
that species now inhabiting shallow water may at more anterior 
periods have been inhabitants of great depths. 

4, “On the one hand, the conditions prevailing near the 
surface of the ocean render it possible for organisms to subside 
after death to the greatest depths, provided every portion of 
their structure is freely pervious to fluid; on the other hand, 
the conditions prevailing at great depths render it impossible 
for organisms still constituted to live under them to rise to the 
surface, or for the remains of these organisms after death to make 
their appearance in shallow water. 

5. “The discovery of even a single species living normally 
at great depths warrants the inference that the deep sea has 
its own special fauna, and that it has always had it in ages past ; 
and hence that, many fossiliferous strata, heretofore regarded 
as having been deposited in comparatively shallow water, have 
been deposited at great depths.” 


Day of Month, 


RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE KEW 


292 


OBSERVATORY. 


BY CHARLES CHAMBERS. 


Meteorological Otservations at the Kew Observatory. 


' LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w. 


pa 
OMOnaDNTANFwWNe 


He 
whe 


14 


eee 
DWIANK 


19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24, 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 


Monthly 
Means. 


Reduced to mean of day. 


% | Calculated. 
or ° - 5 
ag ide) || de iS 
g6 |e 8 |B |g 
Eo |4 e | @ | © 
fle als 
A icine =I 
eae 
inches. | , zi inch. 
29-907] 58°8| 52:1] -80|-401 
29°784) 56°5| 47:9) 75) -347 
29°863) 49°6| 46°7) -91|-383 
29-868) 56°2) 45:1] -69) -315 
29°545) 60°38] 56°3} -88] -462 
29-620) 56°7| 49-1) -78) -362 
30:°045| 62:0) 51:8) -71) -397 
29°985) 55°2] 54-5) +98) -435 
29°754) 55°8| 48:4) 78] -3538 
29°889! 53°8} 40°1| -63] -265 
29°435!| 57°8| 54-5] +89] -435 
29°835) 61°7| 56:4) +84) -464 
29°759) 58:0) 48°6| -73) -356 
29°749) 55:6] 50°8| -85] -384 
29°878| 56°7| 49:6] -79] -368 
29°977| 59°0| 43:1) +58} 294. 
29:975) 56°8) 53-2) -89| -416 
30°193) 59:3] 44°3) +60) 307 
30°153] 58:0) 47:1) -69)°338 
29°931] 53°5| 53:4) 1:00} -4.19 
29°983] 60°1/ 57°3| °91) -478 
30°062) 63°1) 50:4) -65) °378 
30°018] 66°5| 55°6)  °70} °451 
30°109| 61:6 47:3) + 62) 340, 
30°050| 62:0; 47:6} -62) 34.4 
30°074| 60:0] 47:7) :66) -345 
30°058) 606] 52°6| -77| 408 
29°907| 58°3| 50°1| °77| 378 


Temperature of Air. 


9°30 a.xr. on the 


Maximum, read at 
following day. 


Minimum, read at 
9.30 A.M. 


Daily Range. 


At930a.m.; 2P.m.3; and5 p.m. 


respectively. 


Proportion of Sky 
clouded. 


Mm TO O1O 


5 
3 
10.10, 10 
10, 9,10 
IQ, &, 4 
10,10, 9 


(G10 


Direction of Wind. 


W, W by N, W by N. 
SW, WNW, WSW. 
W, WSW, SW by S. 
SW by W, SW, SW. 

E by 8, 8 by W,S by E. 


SW by 8, SSW, SW by 8. 


W, SW by W, SW by S. 
SSW, SW by S, SW. 


SW by W, W, SW by W. 


W by N, W, W. 
SSW, SW by 8, SW. 


SW, SW by 8, SW by 8. 


S, SW by S, SW. 
W, SW, NW by W. 
SW, SW by S, SW by 8. 
W, NW by W, W by 8S. 


SSW, SW by 8, SW by 8. 


NNW, W, W by 8. 
SW, SW, SSW. 
NNE, N by E, NW. 
S, SW by S, SW by 8. 
WSW, W, W. 
SW by 8, SSW, SW. 


SW by 8, NE, —. 
NE, NW by N, NW. 
N, SW, W. 

SW by 8S, WSW, SW. 


Rain, read at 
9°30 A. M. 


inches, | 
‘000 | 
“000 — 
‘000 | 
‘257 | 
"025 @ 
234, | 
020 — 
3198 
‘015m 
1382 | 
110} 


2 
adv 


6 


29 


Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory. 


HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON’S ANEMOMETER—Joxy 1862. 


Day. i | Bi Bl ah Hl B | 71/8 |9 |10/11)12)13/]14)15/)16/17/18)19/ 20) 21 | 22 | 28 | 24.) 25 | 26] 27 | 28 | 29) 30] 31 ak 
Hour. 
e 7) 14) 6! 6 TE} As) NE A) aah fe Arh 1 IL] LG) aay) a) BS AKO ty] Lt) alts) Ay De & Sl 
ge 8} 14, 7| 6 2/3] 8) 29) bl 26) bP =6|) 9) 26) 10) 29/03) =A) 2 = 23) tonal ee ass li2 4 4-8 
3 A el el 8) Te IL BP TOY) ay SP ae (GSH) Sy ay) zl Ny) Sy) Si Gy SF IGE BE 8} PA BG} 8:0 
A 11) 18] 8] 6) 49} 90) 12) 6) 11) 13) $9) 7 Gi) 12) 3) 9) 8 18) 9) 8) LO; 2) 5) 6) 20) 21 & 3) 4] 4 8:8 
7 2 11) 20) 6) 7 Ts) A By) TI SIGH TKO}, FS ah aka) Ey KON = "7A az SGU a at a 2 es eer} 89 
Ad 6 1o| 17| 7 6 15] 17; 4) 10] 15} 11) 10) 5/ 13) 6) 9} 8] 11} 12) 12) 7 2) 9 6 18) LW 5 5| 64] «68 91 
4 7 12} 17| 10) 6 18} 20} 5} 17) 15} 11) 12) 6/ 14} 11) 12) 10) 9] 18} 18) 11} 4) 10) 9) 17) J 5 6) 5) 14) 11:0 
8 13] 16 14) 7 18] 18) 6] 18) 17} 12) 18] 6) 17) 13) 15} 8] 13] 21) 20) 13) 3) 9) 11) 22) J) 9 5} 69} 17 12°6 
9 14; 18] 11) §] 6) 21) 20; 8] 19] 18} 12) 15) 8} 20) 13] 15} 12) 18} 27) 20) 11) 4) 8 12) 20) 5) 9 9} 6) 1S} 13-4 
10 14) 17| 10) 11) 8] 18} 20] 8} 19] 15] 13; 13) 8] 16} 14) 15) 12) 12) 23) 20) 12) 5} 8] 14) 18) 4| 9 Sie /r2il aso 
lu 15; 16) 10) 11) 13) 20) 2 7) V7) 15) 8) 138] 19) 22) 15) 15) 12) 119) 21) 20) 16) 7) 8) 138) 20 Gi fil BAN aldhaal 
12 13] 19] 7) 13] 14) 22) 14) 9] 21) 17} 9] 20) 15} 22) 15; 18) 12} 18] 27; 18) 18) 6} 1O) 17) 15 8} 10} 21) 14-9 
( 1 16] 20! 7| 14] 7| 23) 16] 10} 25] 14] 11) 19] 15} 26) 19] 19] 15) 12) 27) 19} 11) 9} 7 28) 17) 38 NB) A 7A) 5 I se7/ 
) 17} 20' 6) 11) 5] 25) 14] 11} 23) 18} 12) 18] 20} 20) 19} 18} 17} 11} 30) 19] 10] 11] 9) 21) 16 8] 6] 25 15°7 
3 18) 20| 5) 12} 7] 25] 18] 12) 21} 13) 10) 17} 20) 23} 22) 21) 19} 10) 25) 19) 11) 8] 8) 20) 15 7| 4! 26) 15:5 
A) 19] 19] 6] 10! 7] 19] 20) 14) 26) 16} 9} 11} 18) 18} 23) 19; 17] 10} 25) 20) 11} 10) 7) 21) 13) 11 1) 6| 7] 24) 146 
; 5 19] 21/ 6) 8} 4 17) 25) 17) 23) 12] 9] Lo} 22) 19) 22) 12) 11) 7 23) 19) LO} 12) G6} 28) 14) 12 3\ 6) (8) 25) 44 
Al 6 18] 19| 6] 7 5] 19) 22! 18) 22) 12) 6) 88 17) 17] 13) 8) 14) 9} 22) 14) 12) 10} 3) 25) 10} 12 il by) By Ah ps} 
A "7 16] 16) 8] 7| 5/ 18] 14) 16] 17/ 18] 4] 14) 16] 16) 9] 11) 13] 7] 17) 18) 8] 8] 4) 29) 7 10 1} 5) 5] 17) 11:5 
8 15] 12! 5) 4) 5] 15] 10] 11] 19) 12) 7] 10) 12) 17) 8) 11) 7 5) 11) 12) 6) 7| 38) 28) 6) 6163) 9 11} 2) 12 9:7 
9 14) 79) 5) Slo 3 LO Zi Lz V7) 8] 5) LOTS S28) 18) A) OSS oo | wel 3 |) 8|/ 18} 4) 14 8:8 
10 | OL Ss} Al ais) SS) aa 1] S77] SS MO} Baal, BO By 4| 12) 6} 10 8:3 
la 16; 10| 8 g| 17; 9] 8] 16) 8 11] 10) 11] 14) 10; 7] 10) 5) 7] 10) 1) 4) 4 19 5|- 8 Fyn) | mente | ails 9:9 
12 14/10) 7 ia] Wa) 7) UO) ss} GP S77) Sy LSS lea GE a 6) 3) 5) 10 7.9 
ae |e eS en ee ee ee SS a SS ee eee eS ee ee ee ee en S| ee ee 
Total 
Daily 3321388177) 347 |425/370/220)/4109|/320|/220/267'273/394)287|295)26 7|/24.2/387 340/221 181/143 376/3386)1386] 265 |157/131/367| 11:1 
Move- 
ment. 


294 Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory. 


RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE 
KEW OBSERVATORY. 


LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w. 


1862. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of nae At 9°30 a.m., 2 P.M., and 5 P.m._ 
| respectively. 
ro S Calculated. SB oo is 
2 4 : s DE s 5 
Be | 3 a EONS ie a tare ee 
Dy Soe) es eS se es ee 
Sta ee aiiees) || Silica] ee eee ease ee ae Direction of Wind 
Month. £8 = | | a 3 | 3 BS | > 23 rection of Wind. 
Se) || le hee eae as. |) es 
ee) e/a /s]elaas/g |) & 
a |e a & | 428 Ey 
ara | | 
inches. a . inch ie 5 a 
Aug. 1 | 29-989] 66:2| 48°6| -56)-356| 73°7 | 522) 21:5) 1, 1, 1| SW, SW, by W, SSW. 
4 2 | 29°964| 61°5| 50°3/ -69|-377| 70:9 | 51°8} 19-110, 6, 10 WSW, W, W. 
ee eal ges. crcl seu leeeet|) 2 ACS IO eee Hie tea 
», 4 | 29-913] 62'9| 50-2} -65|-376| 71:0 | 46°9| 24-1| 6, 2, 3)SW by 8, SW by §, S by E. 
» 5B | 29°646| 61°8) 49:9] -67|-372| 69-4 | 57-4) 12-0) 4, 5, 4) _ SSW, SSW, SSW. 
», 6 | 29°772| 59°3| 47-2} -66) 389) 67-5 |51:0|16-5| 4, 8, 4| W by 8, SW by S, SSW. 
» 7 | 29°390| 558) 546) -96|-436] 66-2 | 54:4) 11-8/10, 7, 7 SSE, SW, SW. 
5 8 | 29°516| 54-0] 46°38] -78)-334) 64-5 |51°8| 12-7] 8, 8, 7|_ SW, W by 8, WSW, 
» 9 | 29°771| 55:9) 47°8) -76|-346) 63-3 |53°5| 9-8] 8, 10, 10.NWbyW, NWbyW, Nby W. 
TON | Bee Mises fl eect itercnealcxen Oo a 9 Aore lly pa omer oe ey, 
» 11 | 80°112| 57-0) 48-4) -75)-353] 64:0 | 53'9'10-1/10, 9, 8] NW, SW by 8, W by N. 
» 12 | 30°114/ 60-1) 518) -76)-397| 67-7 | 483, 19-4) 8, 6,10| SSW, SW, SW by W. 
y 18 | 29:920} 59°8| 55°6} °87|-451| 67-7 | 50°5|17-2)10, 9, 10 NW, 8, SSW. 
5, 14 | 29-743] 57-9) 57-6] -97|-473| 65:8 | 54°3/11-5/10,| 7, 10/SW by §, Sw by S, WSW. 
», 15 | 29°773| 59°2| 56-7 -92]-468| 66-0 | 53'8| 12-2] 9, 9, 6SW by W, SE by E, S by BE. 
» 16 | 29°759| 56°4| 55°6| -97|-451) 62:4 | 51°8/ 10-6/10, 10, 10 NNE, N by E, N. 
MA ye Piece of ecale oeradll cee [OOH O MD OUA ASIOI Mel tyes a = 
», 18 | 29:946| 55-2) 48-6] -80/-356| 62:3 |54°6| 7-7/10,10, 2| N, NW, NE byN, 
» 19 | 29:934/ 62°8] 53-7] 74) 423] 70-0 | 47°5| 22'5| 1, 1, 0| SW by 8, SW, SW by 8. 
5, 20 | 29-984) 59-9| 53:6) °81|°422] 67-3 | 51:0) 16-3) 9,10,10| S by W, WSW, NW. 
5, 21 | 29899] 63°3| 56:2} °79|-460) 71:0 |56-0)15-0] 4, 9, 9| S by W, 8, SW by 8, 
5, 22 |29°904)| 59°3| 49-0) -70|-361| 67-6 | 55-0) 12°6|10, 4, 7) NNW, W by N, W by N. 
» 23 | 80158) 592/501} -74|-374| 67-3 | 46-2) 21-1) 4, 6,10 SW, SW, SW. 
OA Tee ces dio: -e. i lsat) Heck enOueon NAARB 22586 ime ee a0 
5 25 | 307182) 59:8| 46-0] -63/-325] 67-9 | 47-3) 206} 2, 1, 1 E, 5, ey 
» 26 | 29°888] 62:6] 51:0] -68)-386| 70-5 | 51-9;18-6| 5, 3, 4 E, E by 8, H by 8. 
» 27 | 29-953) 61:3] 50-1] °69)-374| 69-5 |54-0/15°5| 1, 4, 4, NE by N, NE, NE. 
» 28 | 80-089] 60-2] 48-6] °68)-356| 67-8 | 47-8) 20-0] 2, 3, 2) NE eae NNB, NE, 
»5 29 | 30133) 56°6| 51:0] °83| -386| 64-6 | 47-6] 17-0] 38,10, 10) NE by N, N ae H, NNE. 
» 30 | 30:065| 57-0] 49:0} -76|-361| 65:0 | 47-9/17-1) 4, 7, |4) NNE, N by W. 
Be OMGN | coach |lisse | caas dljhape ull apieqal OBL OM DAO (SIMA Rao oxi Be 
Mone } 29°905) 59:4] 51°1| -76) -889 15:8 2692 


HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON’S ANEMOMETER.—Ave. 1862. 


A. M. 

-A.. 
cH 
CMON DOE Wh re 


en) 
(op) 
Qi 
§ 
3 
= 
S 
va) 
rd 
S 
= 
i 
a) 
re 
~_ 
~S 
8 
6 
3 U1 
Ss 12 
> 
~ (ea 
S 
2 | Z 
S 3 
= | 4 
3 , 
@ lsilG 
S || 7 
=e | 4 
ela 
ib) 
Ss (11 
12 
Total 
Daily 
Move- 


2|)3|4 


ee 
| EE OUOUNTNSTIOUNTO MO OHOHOMOTUANOoOF OD 


| 


162 


H 
WWHRDOWRAWWNWNNOOOADEBHorponwn1ww es 


12] 


OWRMrPwwea ek 


@ B® OTO © sT 


W431 


DOOnNOUON 


MONON ww oR PI 


11 | 12 


MBOnNTOUININrHoOoNnNnww ew 


| 
| 


)/138/154 


13 | 14 


— 
S 


e 
~ 09 
et 


272|148 


— 
~I 
WCNNFNWENTH WOU MmAONTOAWobwWoOowo 


15 


| WNNErPNWPNFPHPWOAAW EON eC WWNHPH wwe 


for) 
OU 


16 


NT OU OUNT & GW DO DO 


17 


18 | 19 


co 
NON HNHENHOH- 


OWN WWRrANTOOS 
pl 
S) 


194)182 


| WNRrHORrOKREFENE SE NWNHPEWHRWOKONAOKD 


er) 
op) 


aoamhkhoo»w ow Fos wD WWM WH ew HY 


22 | 23 | 24:| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 


ee 
SSMWMDMNADHDMDARHRMHRAM 


e 


H 
TOU O M&O 


[orn 


Hw OWE OLOLM OS DATS OG) OULOL OUOL OF OL OUD 


CONT ORPWNW OO UMOOBROBEWNNOUDWWWH Ee 


274 


eile 
Wal AP 
val) Wee 
(7i\ eal eal 
Al 
G2 
UA Al) 
Giegines 
UB Ge 5) 
TEAL > fey 7/ 
10| 8| 7 
11} 9} 10 
12} 10) 10 
11) 11) 10 
13) 9) 12 
Si Gis 
6| 8] 12 
9} 3] 11 
4) 3] 11 
9} 2) 8 
5 Bl 8 
32 2-38 
er el 
Oe 2-8 
190|100|14.0 


WWNNWHNFENTATOMDODAINWNwWh hb ww 


Ke) 
oo 


ONO TOKO 


193 


Hourly 
Means. 


OMBOUOALINSO 


296 Meteorological Observations ut the Kew Observatory. 


RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE 
KEW OBSERVATORY. 


LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w. 


1862. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 9°30 a.m., 2P.m., and 5P.m., 
; respectively. 

Calculated. 

{ i eerie ary RO 2 

3 < Sesh KS veal eas 

BR zc) Ge Sa Bb 3 . So 2 G 

| Dayor | sce ae Wa Sikes eS OS | el ie el og 

Sten sa! 5 | 2 rs)| as ogon | .4 | & Sy Direction of Wind. 

| fo )3)8& |Be| 8) 828 /#s|/ ea] £8 

Oo a S Seah aS 06 a | 3 6° 

| ee z 2 ay ai de E A 5 

| fa = a A Fs 

fee a J a 

| inches.| , & inch. i 2 

| Sept. 1 | 29 964) 55°0| 49-4) +83) -366) 61-4 | 45-1) 16-3/10,10,10/ | N, NNE, NE by N. 

|, 2 | 29°709| 59-1) 52'5| -80|-406! 67-4 |53°8} 13-6] 4, 6, 7| ,SW by W, SW, SW. 
» 8 | 29°629] 54-3] 44°83) “71) 307] 61-4 |50-0/ 11-4) 4, 7, 2 SSW, SW, W. 
» 4 | 29°785| 55-2] 47-9] -78| -347| 63-9 | 42-1] 21-8] 2, 8,10 SW, WNW, WNW. 
5 © | 29831] 54-8) 49-7| -84) 369} 63-5 | 43:1) 20-4! 3, 9, 9] NNE, NE by E,—. 
5, 6 | 29°948| 56:6] 50°7| -82/-382) 64:2 |49-5/14°7| 1,10, 9) W by N, W, SSW. 
el cn Eas il coli snecealece || sOde mal Oude 720g tene ba Be 
» 8 | 30:082] 61:2) 57-1) -87/-475) 68-5 | 48:0] 20:5/10, 10, 9 SSW, WSW, SW. 
», 9 | 80-026) 60-7) 54°8) -82/-439| 68:0 |54°8) 138-210, 9, 9} W by N, SW, SW by S. 
,, 10 | 29-950, 53:5] 46-9} -80| 336] 60-7 | 53-9] 6-810, 3, 1] _ N, N by W, NNE. 
», 11 | 30-104) 53-6] 43-3] -70/-296] 62-4 |40-1/22°3| 1, 9, 9| NW, W by N, W by N. 
5, 12 | 30°152) 55:9/50:2} -82|-376) 64-5 |39°2/25°3/ 2, 4, 9| SSW, SW by W, SSW. 
,, 13 | 29°888| 58-0] 51°8| °81/-397) 66:4 | 54-2/12°2/10, 5, 10| SSW, SW by 8, SW by S. 
MO eA NS. ol Son lait aoa ROS MIOO | wit Slie ieee ae 00 

|, 15 | 29°974| 62.2) 53-8) -76|:425] 69-9 | 548/151) 3, 3, 7) NE, ENE, NE by N. 

| ,, 16 | 30-211) 56:8/ 48°6| -76|-356] 64:5 | 53-9] 10-610, 3, 10 NNE, NNE, NE. 

|, 17 | 80°359) 55:0) 47-4) .77| 341] 61-4 | 47-6] 13°8| 10, 9, 10 NE, NE, NNE. 

| » 18 30°376| 57:2|49°7| °78| 369] 64:4 | 43-3) 21:1] 8, 0, 2} NN, NNH, NE by N. 
,, 19 | 30°320| 61:0| 46:9] -62) 336] 67°3 |50°9|16-4) 4, 0, 0| ENE, EH by N, ENE, 

| ,, 20 | 30:207| 59-7| 48°83) -68|/°352) 67:0 | 51:3] 15-7] 3, 0, 1 N, E, NE by E. 

|g, Bal |) Sap ESM RP eerdlirccon ease yiicls zis nn a we 

| ., 22 | 80-119] 52-4) 42°0) -70) 283) 57-5 |51°3| 6-2/10,10, 9) NE by E, E by N, E. 

| >» 28 | 80:055) 549, 46°0) 74) 825, 621 (87-3 24-8) 7, 9, 7 E by 8, E by S, E. 

| 1» 24 | 29866 56:4) 52'0) “86 400) 63:2 | 48'0/15-2) 9, 10, 10 E, E by 8S. ENE. 
»» 25 | 29°890| 58:1] 54°6| -89/ 436] 65:5 | 51-4) 14-110, 10, 5|SWby W, WbyS, SW by W. 
» 26 | 29°895| 58°7| 56°5| -93/-465) 66:9 |49-9/ 17-0) 9,10, 6) S by KE, SW by S, SSW. 
» 27 | 29°877| 59-3] 58:2] -97/-492) 67-1 |54:0/13-1] 9, 9, 9 E by S, E, E. 
2 es al kes. Wye aly col eens ian oeo aioe liMLOsS ia Za Oe wes 
» 29 | 29°772| 58-9] 59-4| 1-00) 513] 66-0 | 56:7| 9:3/10,10,10| SE by E, SSE, SSE. — 
» 30 | 29:850| 56-2) 52°3| -88) 404) 65:8 |54°1)/11-7| 4, 7,10] SW by 8, SW, SW. 

Moana} | 29-994] 57-1] 50'5] 81) -384 147 p 


eee eee eee 


PA) 


Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory. 


HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETER.—Seprr. 1862. 


Si Sai oe [Ee cae ca nt pana Sen [Solsn tna eS SSS EEE 
Day. |1/2/3)4/5)6]7/)|8 | 9|10/11)12/18|14/15/16/17!18]19| 20] 21! 22/ 23/ 24/25 126 | 27/28 | 29130 penny 
Hour. 

3 | 
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ment. 


NO. IV. 


VOL. II. 


298 Microscopic Writing, Engraving, and Printing. 


MICROSCOPIC WRITING, ENGRAVING AND 
PRINTING. 


In our September number (page 143), we gave an account of 
Mr. Webb’s ingenious instrument for microscopic writing. The 
principle as then explained appears to be substantially the same 
as that of Mr. Peters’s Microscopic Pentagraph ; and the results 
obtained by it are equally worthy of remark. At the date of our 
last notice Mr. Webb only exhibited specimens of minute 
writing on glass, but he has recently introduced a very elegant 
novelty in the shape of microscopic engraving and printing 
from copper-plates. In this manner he has produced highly- 
finished copies of the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, God 
Save the Queen, Rule Britannia, and sixteen lines of verse on 
the International Exhibition. Many visitors have engraved 
their own address cards, by writing their names with a pencil 
on paper, and leaving the instrument to diminish and transmit 
the motion to the diamond point by which the letters were 
mscribed on a small copper plate. 

To print from these delicate plates requires peculiar care 
and skill, but all the difficulties have been ably surmounted by 
Mr. Fautley, who has been working in conjunction with 
Mr. Webb, and the microscopic engraving, although scarcely 
visible to the naked eye, as a faint stain upon the paper, 
comes out with beautiful distinctness and regularity when 
placed on the stage of the microscope, and viewed with an inch 
or two-thirds object-glass. If the famous wizard Merlin 
should return to earth, and desire to print his magic book, 
Mr. Webb and his colleague would be able to reproduce the 
pages with “ample marge ;” 

“ And every marge enclosing in the midst 


A square of text that looks a little blot; 
The text no larger than the limbs of fleas.” 


They could indeed supply a diminished copy, as our readers 
will see when they receive the specimen we have had engraved 
for their delectation,* and in which the letters are consider- 
ably less than the size indicated by the poet’s zoological com- 
parison. That this is no exaggeration they may learn by mi- 
crometrical measurement, which Mr. Webb assures us will show 
that some of the letters only measure the half-millionth of an 
inch ! 

Mr. Webb has shown us some blocks of glass nearly inch 
cubes, on which he had engraved microscopically, and from 

* A beautiful specimen of the engraving will be forwarded to readers who will 


send a directed envelope enclosing two postage stamps to Messrs, Groombridge 
and Sons, 5, Paternoster Row. 


Double Stars.—Occultations. 299 


which he had printed specimens, using blacklead instead of 
ink. He also explained the difficulty im finding an ink that 
would deliver itself from such exceedingly minute cuttings on 
copper, but his present process 1s so successful that he has 
printed the Lord’s Prayer from a copper-plate im a space not 
exceeding one-thousandth of an inch. 


DOUBLE STARS—OCCULTATIONS. 
BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, F.R.A.S. 


THE unforeseen arrival of the comet, now on its way into the 
depths of space, occasioned an interruption in our list of double 
stars, which we shall now resume; and im preparing work for 
the lengthening evenings, let us indulge the hope that the 
weather may prove more propitious than has generally been the 
case during the past season. Some of our readers may perhaps 
have been expecting an earlier notice of several beautiful pairs; 
but we have not been desirous of subjecting them needlessly to 
that neck-twistinge which is the imseparable nuisance of the 
achromatic in amateur hands, and the comfort of viewing them 
at a lower altitude will be a sufficient explanation of the post- 
ponement. We bring forward, then, at last, the brilhant gem 
which has so long adorned the neighbourhood of our Zenith— 
46. a Lyre, Wega, or Vega, sometimes less accurately deno- 
minated Lyra. 43°°4, 135°2. land 11. Pale sapphire and 
smalt-blue. Optically double. The great star is a most 
splendid and lovely object in the telescope; not dissimilar in 
the quality of its ight to Sirius, though inferior in brilliancy. 
It seems, however, hardly possible that Wollaston can have 
done it justice, in assigning to it only one-ninth of the light of 
Sirius: nine Wegce compacted into one would surely far outvie 
any star in the firmament. But independently of this estimate, 
its brightness has been diversely rated. The result of its com- 
parison with Arcturus has already been given in the InTELLEc- 
TUAL OxpsERVER, No. VI. p. 435. The elder Herschel, in 1806, 
gave, as comparative places in the scale of magnitude, Capella 
1:25; Lyra 1:30; Procyon 1:40. His son, in his Outlines of 
Astronomy, ranks Capella, Lyra, and Procyon all of equal 
magnitude ; but im his Results of Observations at the Cape, 
in 1847, says—‘ within my own distinct recollection I always 
considered Capella inferior to Lyra, whereas it is now decidedly 
superior.” On the contrary, Laugier, with Arago’s apparatus, 
found the quantity of light from Wega 617, that from Procyon 
445; and Seidel, with Stemheil’s photometer, found for these 


300 Double Stars.—Occultations. 


stars 100 and 71 (a result very nearly agreeing with Laugier’s), 
Arcturus and Capella standing at 84 and 83 of the same scale. 
We seem to be here reduced to the conclusion that either the 
methods hitherto employed of investigating relative brightness 
are worthy of little confidence, or the results are vitiated by 
variation of light. Difference of colour, as referred to in our 
p- 435, may not be without its influence, and possibly other un- 
known peculiarities may be concerned, since Humboldt has 
remarked that from some such cause Wega scintillates less than 
Arcturus and Procyon. From the probability that so splendid 
an object must be withm measurable distance from our eyes, 
the attention of observers has been much directed to its parallax, 
but with no great success. W. Struve’s later observations gave 
its amount 0”:2613, inferring a distance 771,400 times greater 
than that of the Sun; so that if our solar distance were repre- 
sented by | foot, that of Wega would be 146 miles; and its 
light would take 12 years in reaching us. Peters, however, 
finds less than half this parallax; Otto Struve, combining both, 
prefers 01549, widening in proportion that already amazing 
interval; while Airy considers all these results as problematical, 
and the parallax so small—that is, the distance so enormous,— 
as to be unmeasurable by our present instruments. With these 
data before him, who can view that glorious object without the 
impression that he 1s gazing upon a sun far greater in dimen- 
sions, or at any rate in splendour, than our own, and bearing a 
yet more impressive testimony to the majesty of its Creator ? 
Wega is so situated, that in consequence of that slow motion 
called ‘‘ the precession of the equinoxes”—the result of the 
attraction of the Sun and Moon upon our protuberant equator— 
by which the axis of the Harth is continually changing its posi- 
tion with respect to the stars, it might ultimately take the 
place of the Pole Star, but only after 8 and a Cephei and 6 
Oygwi had successively gained and relinquished that distinc- 
tion ; and after a computed period of 12,000 years. 

Thirty-five companions to Wega have been counted (of 
course with some low power) in the field of the great achro- 
matic, of 14°95 inches aperture, at Harvard University, Cam- 
bridge, United States. Of these one is much closer than the 
rest, and we must now try to find it; but if we succeed, we 
shall only perceive a very minute speck, barely distinguishable 
so near the vivid blaze of its overpowering neighbour. Yet 
who shall say what, in its uncomputed and incalculable and 
incomprehensible distance, may be the intrinsic splendour and 
magnitude of that minute speck, so insignificant in our eyes; 
upon any estimate, doubtless very far exceeding the bulk of 
our eight-thousand-mile globe? Independently, however, of 
this consideration, which is common to it with hundreds and 


Double Stars.— Occultations. 301 


thousands of similar objects, it possesses some interest both as 
the point of departure from which the parallax of the great star 
is measured, and as a well-known test for instruments of a 
moderate size. It is evident that a certain proportion of light 
is requisite. I believe it might be seen with 3% inches of real 
excellence. I have caught it, but only in very fine weather, 
with 32; four inches ought to hold it pretty steadily in a 
clear atmosphere. Increase of power is serviceable, as tend- 
ing to draw away that little pomt from the dazzling blaze, and 
to place it on a quieter and darker background; and thus Sir 
W. Herschel found it invisible with 227, but visible with the 
same aperture with 460 ; and when Kitchener could not see it 
in his 5-feet achromatic with 250, he perceived it easily with 
300 and 450. In my present mstrument I see it with 56. 
What must be the hght-grasping capacity of Sir John Herschel’s 
18-inch speculum we may guess from his statement, that he 
has well seen and measured it in broad twilight, just after 
sunset, and with a moon! 

The next star to Wega (at the present season above it) is a 
pecuharly beautiful and remarkable object, commonly cailed 
e Lyre, though more correctly by a combination of Bayer’s 
alphabetical with Flamsteed’s numerical designation— 

47, @4 and &5 Lyre. This is a quadruple, or more pro_ 
perly a double-double star. First of all we have a pair 3’ 27” 
apart, Just far enough to be separately distinguished by a very 
keen sight. Herschel I. once mentions having so seen it; 
Bessel could divide it at thirteen years of age, and I have met 
with two modern instances in England ; but to the generality of 
eyes it will probably appear (as it does to my own) what Smyth 
calls it, ‘an irregular looking star.’ This pair, of course, is 
widely separated in the telescope, while at the same time it 1s 
perceived that each of the components is again closely double— 
a beautiful combination. The data of el are 3” 2, 20°°6, 5 and 63, 
yellow and ruddy: those of & are 2'"6, 150°°9, 5 and 53, both 
white. Hach pair is believed to be in slow motion, e' the most 
northerly, with a period of about 2000 years, the other as fast 
again : while both may possibly revolve round a common centre of 
gravity in years innumerable by the skill of man. Struve differs 
from other observers (except Dembowski) in ascribing a bluish 
tint to the smaller star of ¢'; this peculiarity attaches to the 
observations of five years, and is the more remarkable as the 
colours of this great astronomer are usually accordant with those 
of other standard authorities. He also suspects variable light 
in one of the stars of ¢. An aperture of 21 inches, perhaps 
even a little less, is sufficient, if really good, for these beautiful 
pairs. With large instruments three more stars are added to 
the group; one, which Dawes calls 9°5 mag. is comparatively 


302° Double Stars.—Occultations. 


obvious; two others, between the principal pairs, 45” apart, 
the “debilissima” couple of Sir J. Herschel, though both rated 
15 mag. are considerably unequal, and form an admirable test 
for light. With 3% inches I had pretty certain glimpses of 
the one and occasional suspicions of the other; with 54 both 
are easily seen. 

Just to the left of Wega we shall observe two small stars 
almost in a line with it. The nearest of these is— 

A8. ¢ Lyre. 43'°8. 149°6. 5 and 53. Topaz and greenish. 
This is a noble though wide object ; but merely optical. 1850-77 
and 1855°68, with 34 inches, I thought the smaller star 7 and 
6 mag. It now appears as in Smyth. 

The further of the two is— 

49. 6' and & Lyre. Bluish and fine orange, with many 
companions. This pair is not in the Bedford Catalogue, but 
forms a very noble object under a low power. 

A little below these two small stars, but somewhat more to 
the left, we find two more similarly arranged on a parallel line, 
but brighter, bemg of 3 mag. We must turn the telescope on 
the one to the right, which is— 

50. B Lyre, a quadruple group. 458. 60”. 71”. 150™1. 
319°°5. 25°. 3, 8, 84, and 9. Very white and splendid, pale 
grey, faint yellow, and light lilac; with a minute pairs. ‘The 
large star is a marvellous object, from its variation of light. 
This, according to Argelander, takes place in 12d. 21h. 53m. 
10s., but with two maxima and minima during that period, 
each maximum reaching the same point between 3 and 4 mag., 
the minima being unequal, alternately above and below 4 mag. 
The duration of these singular changes has also been found 
variable, increasing from the year 1784, when it was discovered 
by Goodricke, to 1840, and subsequently slowly decreasing ; a 
wonderful but by no means exceptional imstance, which pro- 
bably indicates the existence of some unknown general law. 
A question may perhaps be entertained, as to a possible vari- 
ation in the colour of this curiously mutable star. Smyth, who 
gives it as above for the epoch 1834°73, states the hue of y, 
the 3 mag. star to the left of it, to be “bright yellow” 
(1834°59). I found with 34 inches y always (1849°77, 
1850°4:7, 1850°51, 1850°7) much less yellow than #, if not 
white. 1862°77, with 54 inches, I found y the paler in tint, 
though the difference was not considerable. Schmidt thought 
the colours always nearly the same, yellowish-white, from 1844. 
to 1855. Herschel and South made 8 white. The possibility 
of a variation in the brightness of y also has been mentioned 
by Smyth ; and there seems nothing unlikely in the idea, which 
at any rate deserves consideration, that change of magnitude 
may be, in some cases, attended by change of hue. 


Double Stars.—Occultations. 303 


51. » Lyre. 283. 84°8. 5 and 9. Sky-blue and violet 
(1834°74). I found the large star yellow, 1849°76 and 1850°77, 
with 93, imches; and 1849-93, with Mr. Bishop’s 7-inch 
achromatic im the Regent’s Park: pale yellow, 1862°77, with 
many powers of 54 inches. On the other hand, Struve makes 
it cerulea durig 5 years, about 1830. It lies in a beautiful 
field, containing a pretty open 8 mag. pair s p, and a smaller 
open pair, 10 and 11 mag. fa little n. To find it let a lme 
joinine Wega and y be taken as one side of an equilateral tri- 
angle—the opposite angle to the left will fall near two small 
stars, the uppermost of which is 7; or 7 1s about one-third of 
the distance from Wega to y Cygni— 

The two stars 8 and y Lyrce poimt at some distance s f, on 
to the left, a little above a glorious object. 

52. B Cygni. Albireo, in the beak of the swan. 34:4, 55°°6. 
3 and 7 (perhaps, Smyth says, underrated). Golden-yellow 
and smalt-blue; merely, as it seems, in optical juxtaposition, 
though one of the most splendid and beautiful as well as best- 
known pairs in the heavens. Any telescope, fit to be turned 
upon the stars at all, will show it, though of courze it will gain 
greatly with increase of hght and power. 

We will now examine some interesting objects in the head 
of the long winding constellation Draco, many folds of which 
he between Wega and the further part of Ursa Major. 

A line from 8 Lyre through Wega falls at some little dis- 
tance upon a 2nd mag. star in the Dragon’s head, y Draconis, 
or Ras al Tannin, worth looking at for its fine deep yellow 
hue, but more remarkable as passing almost exactly through 
the zenith of Greenwich, in consequence of which Bradley, in 
observing it vainly for a parallax which his instrument could 
not detect, was led, in 1728, to the discovery of the aberration 
of ight. A similar line from y Lyre through Wega falls upon 
another 2nd mag. star in the head, 8 Draconis, or Alwaid, 
almost exactly 1 of which, at a short distance, lies— 

53. v’ and v’ Draconis. 61-9. 311°°8. Both 5, and pale 
grey. A bright pair, suitable for a small telescope, which 
seems to have a proper common motion. 

As far from pv, p, as 8 is from y, we get our next object— 

54. wo Draconis. 3-6. 206°°7 (1830-79). 33. 200°°3 (1839°53). 
4 and 44. White and pale white. This beautiful double star 
is undoubtedly binary, with a period, Smyth thinks, of about 
600 years. ‘l'wo inches of aperture, he found, would show it. 
Secchi’s measures give, for 1857°5, 2""746 and 18837, so that 
its progressive motion is striking. 

Two lines, through y and §, and through v and p, converge 
a little beyond— 

55. 17 Draconis. 2"*8, 115°7. 6 and 64 Pale yellow and 


304 Double Stars.—Occultations. 


faint lilac; converted into a fine triple group by the juxta- 
position of another white 6 mag. star (16 Draconis), at 905 
and 194°°6. 'These are, as yet, said to be stationary. 

A little n fv, that is, above it at the present season, and 
forming the N. point of a triangle, of which y and £ are the 
base, is & a 3 mag. star. A line through v and & soon falls 
upon— 

i 56. 39 Draconis. 3'°3. 5°5. 5 and 84. Pale white and 
hight blue; a 7 mag. ruddy companion stands at 892 and 
21°°7. There is a suspicion of binarity here; but Secchi re- 
marks, as Struve had done, the discordancy of measures in so 
distinct an object. 

The previous line through v and & continued through the 
last pair, will show us, if bent a little to the left,— 

57. o Draconis. 30°4, 347°6 (18380°78). 303. 34575 
(1837-89). 5 and 9. Orange and lilac. This beautiful pair, 
if physically connected, as Smyth thought probable, is a 
striking exemplification of the fact already referred to, that the 
magnitude of stars is no criterion of their distance. 

We now leave the accumulation of double stars so curiously 
clustered together about the head and neck of Draco, and re- 
turn to Cygnus. We have already taken Albireo (No. 52) on 
the beak. The rest of the constellation, when on the meridian, 
hes N. and W. of this pomt. In following the galaxy from 
Albireo towards Cassiopea, we soon find it crossed by a some- 
what bent line of three nearly equidistant 3 mag. stars (besides 
a fourth to the left). These are 6, next the head of Draco, y in 
the centre, and e«. A little above y we come toa, Al Ridph, 
the lucida of the constellation; a star whose entire inaccessi- 
bility to the ordinary questioning of parallax, and absence of 
proper motion, indicate a distance perfectly incomprehensible ; 
as its brilliancy under such circumstances exalts it, not impro- 
bably, to the dignity of bemg one of the largest bodies in the 
universe. If we now suppose a line from a to 6, a little out- 
side (or N.) of it, we shall find— 

58. o° Cygni, an orange 4 mag. star, which with o', 53 mag. 
cerulean blue, at 5’ 38”, and 63p.xx. 74 mac., of the same colour, 
at 1’ 46-6, forms a fine bright group, in one of the glorious 
fields so continually occurring in galaxy regions. A 16 mag. 
companion, 15” from o2, is not likely to fall under the notice of 
any observer with less than 6 inches of aperture. 

59. y Cygmi. 25°°7. 72°79. 5 and 9. Golden-yellow and 
pale blue. This pair is relatively fixed, but has probably a 
common proper motion. It will be found less than half way 
(about two-fifths) from 6 to y, a little to the right. 

A line carried from y through o (No. 56) nearly as far again, 
will pass a little above a very pretty, though not easy object— 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 305 


60. yr Cygni. 3°°5. 1842. 53 and 8. Bright white and 
lilac. 
OCCULTATIONS. 


There will be three occultations at convenient hours during 
the present month. The earliest will be a fine one, well worth 
looking for. Nov. 6. 6 Arietis, 43 mag., will disappear (at 
Greenwich) at 10h. 6m., and reappear at 11h. 22m. 24th, a 
6 mag. star, No. 6539 B. A. C. (2. e. of the British Association 
Catalogue) will be covered by the moon’s limb at 6h. 3lm., 
and come forth at 7h. 4m. 30th, 45 Piscium, 6 mag., will be 
occulted from 7h. 21m. till 8h. 22m. 


PROCHEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 


BY W. 8B. TEGETMEIER. 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF 
SCIENCE. 


Tue Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the British Association 
was held this season at Cambridge, under the presidency of Pro- 
fessor Willis, who delivered the inaugural address, which was chiefly 
devoted to the details of the Society’s expenditure. In the lecture 
devoted to Intellectual and Physical Science, Mr. J. Nasmyth de- 
scribed “The Features of the Sun’s Surface,’ as at present 
known. The spots he regarded as gaps or holes in the luminous 
surface of the sun, exposing the dark nucleus, and over this appears 
a thin, gauze-like veil, then comes the penumbral stratum, and over 
all the luminous stratum, which he had discovered to consist of 
lenticular or willow-leaf shaped masses, crossing each other in every 
direction, so as to hide the dark nucleus, except at the spots. These 
objects were found to be in constant motion, shooting over the 
whole surface. Some of them were as large as the surface of the 
whole earth. 

The Rev. Dr. Pritchard regarded the discovery as one of very 
high importance in the knowledge of the physical constitution of 
the sun. ; 

In connection with this subject, Professor Selwyn showed 
several “autographs of the sun,” taken with his “ heliautograph,” 
which consists of a camera and instantaneous slide, attached to a 
refractor of 2% inches aperture, the principle being the same as that 
of the “‘ photoheliograph ” made for the Kew Observatory. Two of 
the autographs taken have the edge of the sun in the centre of the 
photographic plate, showing that the diminution of light towards 
the edges of the disc is a real phenomenon, and not wholly due to 


306 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


the camera. In two taken on the 4th of August, the great spot 
(20,000 miles in diameter) appears on the edge, and a very distinct 
notch is seen, giving evidence that the spots are cavities; but ob- 
servations and measurements tend to show that this evidence is not 
conclusive, for there was still a remaining portion of photosphere 
between the spot and the edge. The phenomena shown in these 
autographs appear to confirm the views of Sir J. Herschel, that the 
two parallel regions of the sun where the spots appear, are like the 
tropical regions of the earth, where tornadoes and cyclones occur. 
The faculee seem to show that the tropical regions of the sun are 
highly agitated, and that immense waves of luminous matter are 
thrown up, between which appear the dark cavities of the spots, 
whose slopmeg sides are seen in the penumbre. Other analogies 
between solar spots and earthly storms were pointed out, and refe- 
rence was made to the glimpses of the structure of the sun exhi- 
bited by Mr. Nasmyth as confirming the above views. 

One of the most important and popular papers read before the 
Association was that of Mr. Glaisher on his recent BarLoon Ascrnts. 
Mr. Glaisher stated, that the first ascent was from Wolverhampton 
on July 17. Owing to the force of the wind, considerable difficulty 
was experienced in the preliminary arrangements. ‘The ascent took 
place at 9°43 a.m., and at once the balloon was quiescent. The 
swaying to and fro had ceased in an instant, and I at once proceeded 
to fix the instruments. At the height of 4000 feet we entered a 
stratum of clouds of nearly a mile in thickness. A height of more 
than 10,000 feet had been passed before I could put all the instru- 
ments in working order. ‘The sky was of a deep Prussian-blue 
colour, without a cloud of any kind upon its surface. At starting, 
the temperature of the air was 59°; at 4.000 feet, 45°; and descended 
to 26° at 10,000 feet; and then there was no variation of temperature 
between this height and 13,000 feet. During the time of passing 
through this space, Mr. Coxwell and myself both put on additional 
clothing, feeling certain that we should experience a temperature 
below zero before we reached an altitude of five miles; but, to my 
surprise, at the height of 14,500 feet, the temperature, as shown by 
all the sensitive instruments, was 31°; and at each successive 
reading, up to 19,500 feet, the temperature increased, and was here 
43°. When we had fallen somewhat, the temperature again began 
to decrease with extraordinary rapidity, and was 16°, or 27° less 
than it was twenty-six minutes before. At this time—about eleven 
A.M.—we were at a height of five miles, when we began to descend. 
Immediately afterwards we entered a dense cloud, which proved to 
be no less than 8000 feet thick, and in passmg through which the 
balloon was invisible from the car. 

The most important ascent took place from Wolverhampton on 
the 5th of September. It commenced at 1:3 p.m.; the tempera- 
ture of the air was 59°; at the height of one mile it was 39°, and 
shortly afterwards we entered a cloud of about 1100 feet in thick- 
ness, in which the temperature fell to 363°, and the air was satu- 
rated with moisture. We reached two miles in height at 1°21, 
three miles at 1:28, and four miles at 1:39. In ten minutes more 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 307 


we had reached the fifth mile, and the temperature had passed 
below zero, and then read minus 2°. Up to this time I had expe- 
rienced no difficulty in breathing, whilst Mr. Coxwell, in conse- 
quence of the necessary exertions he had to make, had breathed 
with difficulty for some time. Mr. Coxwell ascended into the ring, 
and I endeavoured to reach some brandy which was lying on the 
table at a distance of about a foot from my hand, but I was unable 
to do so. My sight became dim. I looked at the barometer, and 
saw it between 10 and 11 inches, and tried to record it, but was 
unable to write. I then saw it at 10 inches, still decreasing fast, and 
just managed to note it in my book; its true reading, therefore, 
was about 9$ inches, implying a height of about 29,000 feet. I was 
losing all power, and endeavoured to rouse myself by struggling 
and shaking. I essayed to tell Mr. Coxwell I was becoming in- 
sensible, but I had lost the power of speech. I saw Mr. Coxwell 
dimly in the rmg; it became more misty, and finally dark. I was 
still conscious, and knew I should soon be insensible, and I suddenly 
sank as in sleep. On recovering consciousness, I heard Mr. Cox- 
well say, ““ What is the temperature? Take an observation, now, 
try.” I could neither see, move, nor speak, but I knew he was 
in the car trymg to rouse me. I then heard him speak more 
emphatically, “Take an observation. Now do try.” I then saw 
the instruments dimly, and Mr. Coxwell very dimly, then more 
clearly, and shortly afterwards said to Coxwell, “I have been 
insensible ;” and he replied, “You have; and I nearly.” I re- 
covered somewhat quickly, and Mr. Coxwell said, I have lost the 
use of my hands; give me some brandy to bathe them. His 
hands were nearly black. I saw the temperature was still be- 
low zero, and the barometer reading 11 inches, and increasing 
quickly. Iresumed my observations at 2°7, recording the barometer 
reading 11°53 inches, and the temperature minus 2°. I then found 
that the water in the vessel supplying the wet-bulb thermometer, 
which I had by frequent disturbance kept from freezing, was one 
mass of ice, Mr. Coxwell then told me that whilst in the ring he 
felt it piercingly cold; that hoar frost was all round the neck of 
the balloon; and on attempting to leave the ring he found his 
hands frozen, and he had to place his arms on the ring and drop 
down ; that he found me motionless, with a quiet and placid ex- 
pression on the countenance ; that he at first thought I was resting 
myself; that he then spoke to me without eliciting a reply, and 
then observed my arms hanging by my side, and my legs extended, 
and found I was insensible. He then felt that insensibility was 
coming over himself, and that he could not assist me in any way ; 
that he became anxious to open the valve; that his hands failed him; 
and that he instantly seized the line between his teeth and pulled 
the valve open two or three times, until the baloon took a decided 
turn downwards. Some pigeons were taken up. One was thrown 
out at the height of three miles ; it extended its wings and dropped 
like a piece of paper. A second, at four miles, flew vigorously 
round and round, apparently taking a dip each time. A third was 
thrown out between four and five miles, and it fell downwards. A 


208 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


fourth was thrown out at five miles, and it fell downwards. A fifth 
was thrown out at four miles when descending ; it flew in a circle, 
and shortly alighted on the balloon. The two remaining pigeons 
were brought down to the ground. One was found dead, and the 
other, a carrier, had attached to its neck a note. It would not, 
however, leave, and when cast off the finger returned to the hand. 
After a quarter of an hour it began to peck a piece of ribbon by 
which its neck was encircled, and it was then jerked off the finger, 
and it flew with some vigour finally towards Wolverhampton. One 
of the carriers returned to Wolverhampton on Sunday, and this is 
the only one we heard of.* 

These ascents have led me to conclude, firstly, that it was neces- 
sary to employ a balloon containing nearly 90,000 cubic feet of gas, 
and that it was impossible to get so high as six miles, even with a 
balloon of this magnitude, unless carburetted hydrogen varying in 
specific gravity from 70 to 340 had been supplied for the purpose. 
The amount of ballast taken up affords another clue to the power of 
reaching great heights. Gay-Lussac’s ballast was reduced to 33lbs. 
Rush and Green, when their barometers, as stated by them, stood at 
11, had only 70lbs. left, and this was considered a sufficient playing 
power. We found that it was desirable to reserve 500lbs. or 600lbs.; 
asit was evident that a large amount of ballast was indispensable to 
regulate the descent. Secondly, it was manifest throughout our 
various journeys that excessive altitude and extended range as to 
distance are quite incompatible. The too readily-accepted theory 
as to the prevalence of a settled west or north-west wind, was not 
confirmed in our trips. Nor was the appearance of the upper surface 
of the clouds such as to establish the theory that the clouds assume 
a counterpart of the earth’s surface below, and rise or fall like hills 
or dales. The formation of vaponr along the course and sinuosities 
of the river, during an ascent from the Crystal Palace, was a very 
remarkable demonstration. The principal conclusions deduced from 
these observations may be briefly stated: that the temperature of 
the air does not decrease uniformly with the height above the earth’s 
surface, and that, consequently, more elucidation upon this point is 
required, particularly in its influence on the law of refraction. That 
an aneroid barometer can be made to read correctly certainly to the 
first place, and probably to the second place of decimals, to a pres- 
sure so low as five inches. That the humidity of the atmosphere 
does decrease with the height with a wonderful increasing ratio, till 
at heights exceeding five miles the amount of aqueous vapour in the 
atmosphere is very small indeed. That observations up to three 


* Tt is evident, from this description, that Mr. Glashier was supplied with the 
heavy, tame variety of pigeon, known as the English carrier, which is dull of 
flight and does not possess the faculty of returning from long distances. More- 
over, Mr. Glashier must have been very badly advised, to place ribbons round the 
birds, which would severely impede the flight even of those quick flying Belgian 
‘““Smerles,” whose rate of speed enables them to pass an express train as if it were 
a stationary object.—W. B. T. 

+ The average specific gravity of ordinary coal gas is ‘500. ‘The gas em- 
ployed by Mr. Glaisher was specially made for these ascents, being highly heated, 
80 as to obtain a low specific gravity.—W. B. T. 


Notes and Memoranda. 309 


miles high, even of a delicate nature, can be made as completely in 
the balloon as on the earth; that at heights exceeding four miles 
they cannot be made quite so weil, because of the personal distress 
of the observer ; that at five miles high it requires the exercise of a 
strong will to make them at all; that up to three miles high any 
person may go into the car of a balloon who has any ordinary degree 
of self-possession; that no one with heart disease or pulmonary 
complaints should attempt four miles high. 


NOTES AND MHMORANDA. 


Tue DistortTED SKULLS oF WroxETER.—Dr. Henry Johnson, of Shrewsbury, 
communicates to the Royal Society an explanation of the deformity exhibited by 
nine and twenty skulls discovered at Wroxeter. He ascertained that the soil in 
which they were found was acid, and then made an experiment by keeping a piece 
of fresh bone for a month in water impregnated with carbonic acid, which was 
found to be flexible at the end of that time. He therefore concludes that the 
deformity of the skulls was not congenital, but posthumous, and occasioned by a 
softening of the bones soon after interment, and the pressure of the super- 
incumbent soil. After the animal matter of a bone has disappeared, it would 
break, not bend. 


Tur PHorograPHic TRANSPARENCY OF BoprEs.—Professor W. Allen Miller 
has laid before the Royal Society a valuable paper on this and an allied subject, 
“The Photographic Effects of Metallic Spectra, obtained by means of the Electric 
Spark.” He finds that “colourless bodies which are equally transparent to the 
visible rays, vary greatly in permeability to the chemical rays ;” that “bodies 
which are photographically transparent in the solid form preserve their trans- 
parency in the liquid and in the gaseous states,” and that colourless transparent 
solids, which exert a considerable photographic absorption, preserve their absorptive 
action with greater or less intensity, both in the liquid and gaseous states.” Glass 
vessels could not be employed in these experiments, ‘‘as they all, even in thin 
layers, shorten the spectrum by from three-fifths to four-fifths, or even more, of 
its length.” Rock crystal, cut in thin slices and polished, was the only substance 
the Professor found he could use with advantage. After atmospheric air and 
certain gases, rock crystal, ice, pure water, and fluor spar are most perfectly diactinic, 
and rock salt is scarcely, if at all, inferior to them. Among the salts of inorganic 
acids, the nitrates are the most remarkable for their power of arresting the che- 
mnical rays. Most liquids, except water, arrest more or less of their rays, and they 
are stopped by trichloride and oxychloride of phosphorus, although perfectly 
transparent and limpid. Reflection from a metallic speculum caused a great loss of 
actinic power. 


Tue Lone SrectRuM oF Exzcrric Licgut.—In 1853 Professor Stokes exhi- 
bited this spectrum at the Royal Institution, using electric light. He had pre- 
viously found that glass was opaque for the more refrangible and invisible rays of 
the solar spectrum, and that electric light contaimed rays of still higher refran- 
gibility. Rejecting the glass, and using a prism and lens of quartz, he obtained a 
spectrum which, when thrown upon a highly fluorescent substance, was found to 
be six or eight times as long as the ordinary spectrum. He has recently laid 
further researches before the Royal Society, and among the metals he has examined 
he finds aluminium capable of producing the largest number of rays of extreme 
refrangibility. With some metals, broad and lightly convex electrodes exhibited 
the invisible lines better than wires, and the Professor adds: ‘‘ The blue negative 
light formed when the jar is removed, and the electrodes are close together, was 
found to be exceedingly rich in invisible rays, especially invisible rays of moderate 


Q 


310 Notes and Memoranda. 


refrangibility. These exhibited lines independent of the electrodes, and therefore 
referable to the air.” 


Immense Castinc.—A mass of iron for a pile hammer has just been cast at 
the Usines de |’Horme, near St. Chamond, that weighs 38,000 kilogrammes ; 
1 kilogramme is equal to 2670 Ibs. avoirdupois. It will be transported to Rive-de- 
Gier, on a truck drawn by eighty-eight oxen, harnessed in fours, and led by twenty- 
two waggoners.— Cosmos. 


VariaBLeE Neput®.—M. D’Arrest announces that two other nebule im Taurus, 
only eight or nine degrees from that of Mr. Hind, exhibit indubitable variability. 
The first is that discovered by M. Tempel at Venice on the 19th October, 1859. 
Tt had 3h. 37m. 7s. R.A., and 23° 23’ D. This nebula of the Pleiades was described 
by M. Tempel as easily visible. In December, 1860, MM. Peters and Pope saw it 
with difficulty through the equatorial at Altona. In August, 1862, M. D’ Arrest 
could no longer see it with the powerful telescope at Copenhagen. The second of 
the nebule in question is one of those observed at Bonn, and afterwards on the 
5th February, 1859, by Mr. Tuttle, at Cambridge. Now it is almost invisible. 
These three nebule are the only ones, according to M. D’ Arrest, whose variability 
is beyond doubt.— Cosmos. 


New GuyeowpEr.—M. Schultz, a Prussian captain of artillery, has invented 
a new powder, used for the first time at the Frankfort rifle meeting. It is said 
to be cheaper, lighter, and more effective than the common sort, and to leave the 
barrel quite clean after thirty discharges. It is in brownish-yellow grains, like 
wood saw-dust. Its composition is not stated. The Austrians are reported to be 
successful in the employment of gun cotton for artillery. 


Crosine Fruit Jars.—The Homestead recommends instead of corks, tying the 
mouths of the jars, while still hot, with strips of cloth, saturated with equal parts 
of beeswax, resin, and tallow. The superfluous cloth should be cut off, and then 
dipped in melted wax, with half its weight of tallow. 


An Amataam oF Capmium.—As most amalgams are brittle, it is remarkable, 
as Dr. B. Wood mentions in Chemical News, that equal parts of cadmium and 
mercury should form a tough and highly malleable composition. 


ENGELMANN on InFrusor1A.—Dr. Arlidge publishes, in Annals of Natural 
History, an abstract of researches in infusoria, by T. W. Engelmann. This 
observer confirms Miiller’s discovery of spermatozoa in Paramecium aurelia, and 
says they are not, as usually represented, thin rods equally pointed at both extremi- 
ties, but have a bulky anterior, and a thinner posterior extremity of greater 
transparency. Their maximum length is 0:008 of a millimetre. “The embry- 
onic development observed by Stem in Stylonichia mytilus, also fell under his 
notice. In 1859 he found specimens containing embryonic corpuscules ; but it 
was not till the autumn of 1861 that he met with examples which illustrated a 
further stage in their history. These latter were individuals of medium size, and 
mostly contained but one large embryonic globule, placed between the two nuclei, 
close behind the angle of the anal aperture. Placed over it, on the central 
aspect of the animal, there always existed an elliptic or rounded opening, of 
variable size, which was the outlet for the escape of the mature ovum. On one 
occasion only was an elongated and rounded dorsal aperture found, in addition to 
the abdominal foramen just named, and serving like it for the escape of the 
embryos, the act of birth was several times witnessed; sometimes the embryonic 
globules escaped as such, at others they developed tentacles, and assumed the 
acinetiform figure usually described.” He does not know the subsequent history 
of the embryos, but does not believe in their immediate transition to the ordinary 
form of Stylonichia, and is disposed to accept Stein’s view of an alternation of 
generations. He rejects Balbiani’s doctrine that the acinetiform beings seen to 
emerge from the interior of various infusoria are parasites. _ Many other 
interesting particulars will be found in Dr. Arlidge’s notes. 


A Mioroscoric Vrrtrprata.—Dr. Wallich publishes, in Annals of Natural 
History, a drawing of the jaw of a_minute animal, found in mud dredged_up by 


Notes and Memoranda. 311 


him at St. Helena. It contains two rows of saw-like teeth, with four larger 
conical teeth in the front, arranged in two pairs; the hindmost pair being very 
sharp and slightly curved backwards. The extreme length of this specimen is 
zo of an inch, and he estimated the creature to which it belonged as being only 
aly of an inch long. 


New Seiper rrom Cocuin Cutwa.—Dr. Albert Giinther figures and de- 
scribes, in Annals of Natural History, a spider from the above named locality, 
remarkable for the prolongation of its abdomen, which is “anteriorily produced 
into a very long, thin, cylindrical process, which is twice bent, so that its basal 
half is leaning backwards on the back of the abdomen, while its terminal half is 
directed upwards and forwards. The cephalo-thorax being united with the 
abdomen at no great distance from the spinners, the anterior portion of the 
abdomen with its appendage, is situated vertically above the thorax.” 


Zootrrra Netigata.—Dr. T. Strethill Wright describes, in ‘the Quarterly 
Journal of Microscopic Science, New Series, No. VIIL, this elegant creature, 
which he found in oyster-shells, dredged from deep water, in the Firth of Forth, 
near Edinburgh. He says, although the animals are not common, yet we occa- 
sionally meet with a shell completely covered with a dense forest of them, each 
consisting of a clear, glassy stalk, surmounted by a silvery star, and it is difficult 
to imagine a more gorgeous microscopic display than such an assemblage affords, 
especially when illuminated by oblique sunlight of various colours under low 
powers. fZooteira is an actinophrys mounted on a contractile pedicle. The 
long hair-like appendages of the head Dr. Wright terms “ palpocils,’’ and he 
observes, “the animal remains for days with its palpocils sometimes stiffly extended, 
at other times slightly relaxed, and yieldimg in gentle curvatures to the currents in 
the water, and again at other times all thickened and clubbed at their extremities. 
When any small animaleule comes into contact with a palpocil, it is instantly 
taken prisoner, and the appendage recoils inwards with its prey to the body of 
the Zooteira, like a released thread of caoutchouc. In this way the whole of the 
body is sometimes studded with captured animalules, over which a film of endosare 
slowly creeps, and engulphs them.” 


Tue Genus Freya.—tIn the same journal, Dr. T. 8. Wright states that 
certain protozoa, which he formerly described as Lagotia, must be called Freya, as 
that name was given to them in a memoir of Claparéde and Lachinan, written 
before, but not published till after, his own paper. Dr. Wright now describes 
several new species, and explains how F. producta constructs its tube or cell. The 
adult animal (related to the Cothurnia Vaginicola, etc.) is furnished with two 
long curved “ rotatory lobes.” Its larva, which is free swimming, secretes the 
lower part of its cell, and fixes itself. It then builds up the long neck of the tube, 
carefully moulding the plastic matter with its immature lobes, which it uses as a 
pair of hands, just as sabella and serpula mould their tubes with their secreting 
leaflets. Having erected its tube to the requisite height, it finishes it off with a 
handsome trumpet-shaped mouth, and then retires to develop its long rotatory 
lobes. “The cell of this species is furnished with an immensely prolonged neck, 
formed of a ribbon of chitine, spirally wound in a tube, cemented by a thick 
internal gelatinous layer, froma which it derives its green colour, and covered by a 
thin layer of that peculiar glutinous secretion which is used by various aquatic 
animals to attach themselves and their habitation to the sites where they dwell. 
This glutinous stuff Dr. Wright calls “ colline.” 


New Puranet.—On the 29th of August, M. Tempel discovered a new 
planet of 10 magnitude. M. Luther also thought he had found a new body of 
the same kind, but it turned out to be M. Goldsmidt’s Daphne, discovered in 
1856, and which has been lost sight of for six years. 


Tue Great Comet oF 1861.—Cosmos says that M. Sluzki, of Moscow, has 
computed the time of revolution of this body to be 400 years. 


Tae APLANATIC HYEPIECH.—Since our report of Mr. Burr’s paper at the 
Astronomical Society, on the Aplanatic Eyepiece made for telescopes by Messrs. 
Horne and Thornthwaite, we haye made several trials of one constructed on the 


alli Notes and Memoranda. 


same principle, but of considerably higher power thaf that to which he referred 
with such strong commendation. The subject of our experiment corresponds 
very closely in power with a Huyghenian eyepiece, estimated at 300, with a 42- 
inch telescope, having a fine 3-inch Gauss objective, by Steinheil, of Munich, 
remarkable for the lightness of its field. It is only upon certain objects, and in 
very fine weather, that such an eyepiece can be fairly tried, but we have obtained a 
good definition of small stars, and a splendid effect upon the grand mountain 
scenery near the terminator of the moon before and after its full. The field is 
rather larger than with the Huyghenian, but the difference is not so great as in 
lower powers. It is also rather lighter, and on the most. favourable evening of 
our experiments we were disposed to give it a decided preference for certain objects. 
From the fact of the surface of the field lens being in the focus of the eye com- 
bination, extraordinary care in freeing the former from dust isessential. It would 
not be fair to either the makers or our readers to say more at present, except that, 
as the new eyepiece is not expensive, we strongly advise astronomers to investigate 
its merits by actual use. Mr. Webb has employed a miscroscope object-glass 
for high powers, “ the field lens of the ordinary construction being omitted, and 
the microscope object-glass taking the place of the lens next the eye.” This plan 
works well, but it is too costly for ordinary use. 


Microscopic ADDRESS CaRDSs.—The minute cards supplied by Mr. Webb 
are wonderful specimens of microscopic engraving and printing. You receive a 
Lilliputian glazed card, without the slightest trace of any inscription. A strong 
pocket lens shows two faint and delicate lines, impossible to decipher: but if the 
little curiosity is transferred to the stage of the microscope, and examined with an 
inch or two-thirds objective, you at once see a name and address in elegantly- 
formed letters, and greatly admire the skill by which so marvellous a result is 
obtained. 

Fisa Hook SpicuL®.—We have received from Mr. Baker, of Holborn, a 
slide containing spicule of the Hymedesmia Johnsonii (a sponge from Madeira), 
and which are stated to be new objects in this country. They have the form of a 
double fish-hook, and on the inner surface of each hook isan extremely sharp knife 
edge projection, corresponding with a similar and equally sharp projection from 
the inside of the shank. These minute knife-blades are so arranged that, in addition 
to their cutting properties, they would act as barbs, obstructing the withdrawal cf 
the hook. ‘The two hooks attached to one shank are not in the same plane, but 
nearly at right angles with one another, so that when one is horizontal, the other 
is vertical, or nearly so. A magnification of 400 or 500 linear does not in any way 
detract from the sharp appearance of the knife edges, and they may take their 
place with the anchors of the Synapta, as curious illustrations of the occurrence in 
living organisms, of forms which man was apt to fancy were exclusively the products 
of his own contrivance and skill. We presume these hooks of the Hymedesmia 
answer the usual purpose of spicule in strengthening the soft tissue, but they must 
likewise render the sponge an awkward article for the Madeira sea slugs to eat. 


! DETERMINING THE Distance OF THE Sun.—M. Foucault has devised an 
ingenious apparatus for determining the velocity of light, and from the results thus 
obtained he computes the distance of the sun from the earth without leaving his 
study. M. Babinet in stating these facts to the French Academy, observed : 
“ Astronomy by the measure of aberration tells us that the mean velocity of the 
earth round the sun is +5355 of that of light. Taking this fraction of the velocity 
of light we have the space traversed by the earth in one second, and by multi- 
plying by the number of seconds in a sidereal year we obtain the dimensions of 
the annual orbit of the earth. Half the diameter of this orbit is the distance of 
the suu from the earth. The solar parallax, according to M. Foucault is 886, 
with an uncertainty of about <3,. 


okt 


at : 


Archzeopteryx lithographicae H. VON Mrymr. 
Jahrbueh ftir Mineral: 30) Sept, 1861. 
Griphosaurus problernaticus. A, WAGNER. 
1861, Sitzung: der Miinchner Akad: der Wiss. 
Griphornis longicaudatus. OWEN. 
Nov., 1862, Trans: Royal Society. 


THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, 


DECEMBER, 1862. 


ON A FEATHERED FOSSIL FROM THE LITHO- 
GRAPHIC LIMESTONE OF SOLENHOFEN. 


(Lately acquired for the British Museum.) 


BY HENRY WOODWARD, F.Z.S8. 
(With a Coloured Plate.) 


Ir has always been held that the form and proportions of any 
symmetrical object may be inferred from the imspection of a 
part or fragment of the whole. The disciples and admirers of 
Cuvier have often asserted that it was possible for those who 
(like that great anatomist) possessed the requisite knowledge, 
to reconstruct the entire frame of any extinct animal from a 
single bone, or tooth, or claw. These notions went, doubtless, 
far beyond the pretensions of the illustrious founder of the 
science of comparative osteology, and they have led to mis- 
takes and disappointment; but they serve to show the strength 
of the conviction which long ago found expression in the pro- 
verb, “ ex pede Herculem.” 

That the existence of birds at the period of the Secondary 
rocks should have been first intimated by their footprints, may 
seem strange; but as far back as 1835 a notice appeared in 
Silliman’s American Journal of Science, stating that Dr. Deane 
had discovered impressions resembling the feet of birds upon 
some slabs of red sandstone from Connecticut. Dr. Hitchcock 
was the first who submitted these tracks to careful scientific 
examination, and concluded that they had been produced “ by 
the feet of birds which must have been at least four times larger 
than the ostrich.” These gigantic three-toed footprints have 
been found in more than twenty places, scattered through a 
tract nearly eighty miles long, and they are repeated through 
strata more than one thousand feet thick.* Upwards of two 
thousand of the Ornithichiites had been observed and exa- 
mined by Professor Hitchcock twenty years ago; but notwith- 
standing the most diligent and careful search, not a vestige of 
the organic remains of either bird or pterodactyle have as yet 
been discovered in these beds. Numerous coprolites occur in 


* Lyell’s Manual of Geology, fifth edition, p. 348. 
MOT tie —— NOW Vc Z 


314 On a Feathered Fossil. 


the Connecticut rocks, and Dr. Dana has very ingeniously 
argued from an analysis of these bodies, that, like guano, they 
are the droppings of birds rather than of reptiles. 

In the strata between these red sandstones (formerly con- 
sidered to be of Triassic age and now attributed by modern 
American geologists to the Lias or Oolite) and the lower Hocene, 
only two discoveries of reputed bones of birds have been made. 
The first of these is the Cimoliornis diomedeus, a long-winged 
bird from the chalk of Burham, near Maidstone, described in 
1840 by Professor Owen in the Geological Transactions, second 
series, vol. vi., from alee and wing-bone which he considered 
to have belonged to “one of the longipennate natatorial birds, 
equalling in size the albatross.’’* 

In May, 1845, Dr. Bowerbank figured and described (in 
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, p. 7, pl. 1) several 
bones and a part of the head of a pterodactyle, from the same 
chalk pit at Burham, near Maidstone, and after carefully com- 
paring these with the shaft of the humerus of Cimoliornis, he 
was led to believe that it also was the bone of a pterodactyle and 
not a bird. In Dixon’s Geology of Sussex, edited by Professor 
Owen, in 1850, this wing-bone 1s again figured and described 
as that of a bird. The arguments in favour of the Professor’s 
theory are there given at length, to which I must refer the 
reader, pp. 402-3. 

In a subsequent work,+ the Cimoliornis is omitted, and the 
Pterodactylus giqanteus, Bowerbank, from the middle chalk of 
Kent, is recognized as one of the largest and the last of the 
flyme reptiles known. 

The second recorded discovery of bird remains in the 
Mesozoic rocks is noticed in the supplement to Sir Charles 
Lyell’s fifth edition of his Manual of Geology, 1859, p. 40: 
“Mr. Lucas Barrett im 1858 discovered the remains of a bird 
in the Upper Greensand, near Cambridge, a formation worked 
extensively for phosphate of hme, extracted from coprolitic 
nodules. The bird was rather larger than the common pigeon, 
and probably belonged to the order natatores, and, ike most 
of the gull tribe, had well-developed wings. Portions of the 
metacarpus, metatarsus, tibia, and femur have been detected, 
and the determinations of Mr. Barrett have been confirmed by 
Professor Owen.” These bird bones remain unchallenged, 
but are the only true ones on record, 

Ornitholites have been met with in at least a dozen dif- 
ferent localities in the tertiary deposits of Hurope, and also 
at two or three places in our own island. 

We possess, in the geological collection of the National 


* Owen’s British Fossil Mammats and Birds, 1846, p. 547. 
+ Owen’s Paleontology, second edition, 1861, p. 275. 


On a Feathered Fossil. 315 


Museum, specimens from the Miocene of Aller, in France, and 
(iningen, near Constance ; from the Upper Hocene of Puy de 
Dome, Perignat, and Auvergne; and from the Hocene of 
Montmartre and Meudon, near Paris ; and from our own Hocene 
of Hordwell and Sheppey. We have also the remains of a 
large bird from the Sewalik Hills of India; casts of the bones 
and ege of the Aipyornis from Madagascar, and the entire 
skeleton of the Dinornis, and very numerous separate bones of 
this genus and Palapteryx from New Zealand. With the two 
exceptions of the Hocene slate rocks of Glaris, im which the 
almost entire skeleton of a small passerine bird, about the size 
of a lark, has been discovered, and the gypsum quarries of 
Montmartre, where two or three connected skeletons of diffe- 
rent species of birds have been found, these remains consist of 
detached bones or fragments only, or of eges (from Auvergne) 
or feather impressions (from Aix and Bonn). Indeed, the 
whole collection of Ornitholites known could be displayed in a 
single table case of ordinary size. 

This, of course, is exclusive of the great New Zealand and 
Madagascar wingless birds, the Dinornis and Apyornis, the 
Notornis and Palapteryx, which, like the Dodo and Solitaire, have 
perhaps all been exterminated by the agency of man, or within 
the historic period. When we compare this dearth of evidence 
in the geological record with the vast numbers of species of 
living birds (very partially illustrated by the collection of stuffed 
examples in the Ornithological Gallery of the British Museum), 
we cannot but ask the question—Why are no fossil birds found 
in strata in which remains of other animals frequently occur, 
which at first sight appear as little likely to have been pre- 
served as the bones and feathers of a bird? Sir Charles Lyell 
remarks, that “the powers of flight possessed by most birds 
would msure them against perishinge by numerous casualties, 
to which quadrupeds are exposed during floods.” And again, 
“Tf they chanced to be drowned, or to die when swimming on 
the water, it would scarcely ever happen that they would be 
submerged, so as to become preserved in sedimentary deposits.” 

That they can be readily preserved under favourable cir- 
cumstances is proved by the fine examples found at Mont- 
martre and Glaris. 

That we shall have to record many more ornitholitic dis- 
coveries is, 1 think, proved by the startling announcement 
which appeared in print, for the first time in England, in the 
Annals and Magazine of Natural History for April last, headed 
“On a new Fossil Reptile, supposed to be furnished with 
Feathers,” by A. Wagner.* In May appeared another paper, 


* Being a translation from the Sitzwngsberichte der Miinchner Akad.: der 
Wiss, 1861, p. 146, by W. 8. Dallas, F.L.S., of the York Museum. 


316 On a Feathered Fossil. 


“On the Archceopteryx lithographica, from the Lithographic 
Slate of Solenhofen,” by Hermann Von Meyer.* 

In referring to the notices given of this wonderful discovery, 
I prefer to take H. Von Meyer’s paper first, as beg the 
paleontologist who first really called attention to the subject. 
He reminds us, that “ feathers, or indeed any remains of birds, 
have hitherto been known in no rocks older than the Tertiary 
period ;” and that in the lithographic slate, osseous remains 
of birds have frequently been supposed to occur, which upon 
closer investigation appeared to belong to Pterodactyles (perhaps 
to Rhamphorhynchi), from the structure of which we cannot 
infer that the animals were clothed with feathers, and no traces 
of feathers were ever seen with the numerous Pterodactyles 
found, the skeletons of some of which were perfect. He goes 
on to say, “ This rendered it the more surprising, that recently 
a feather should be brought to lght, precisely in the same 
formation, and even at the same spot, which furnishes the 
greatest number of Pterodactyles. The object,’ he adds, 
“occurring on the stone, agrees in all its parts so perfectly 
with the feather of a bird, that it is impossible to distinguish it 
therefrom.” After a most minute description he concludes, 
“The fossil feather of Solenhofen, therefore, even if agreeing 
perfectly with those of our birds, need not necessarily be de- 
rived from a bird. And indeed a feathered animal, differing 
essentially from our birds, has occurred in the lithographic 
slate. My informant is M. Witte, of Hanover. This gentle- 
man saw, in the possession of M. Hiberlem, of Pappenheim, 
pon aslab of Solenhofen slate, an animal, of which he remarked 
hat it possessed feathers, and that the feathers of the tail 
were attached, not asin birds, to the last vertebra, but on each 
side of the caudal vertebrae. They were, moreover, quite dis- 
tinctly furnished with stem and vane. The simple tarsus of 
itself shows that this animal does not belong to the Pterodac- 
tyles, and the formation of the tail contradicts the idea that we 
connect with our birds, yet the feathers are not distinguishable 
from those of birds. ‘The fossil feather described by me will 
be derived from a similar animal.” 

Dr. Wagner’s paper (written shortly before his death) was 
wholly founded on report. Having, like Von Meyer, received 
from M. Witte, of Hanover, a description of the fossil in M. 
Hiiberlein’s collection, and also read a notice of Von Meyer’s 
feather from the same formation, he subsequently procured 


* Translated from the Paleontographica, vol. x. p. 58, by the same author 
foregoing. 
A short notice of these two papers will be found in the InrELLECcTUAL 


OxzseRrvER, No. 5, for June last, page 367. 


On a Feathered Fossil. BUT 


from a friend* a fuller description of the fossil, which he quotes 
at length. 

From this report he was led to conclude that the affinities 
of this wonderful creature were strongest to the Saurian rep- 
tiles, and accordingly he regarded its natural covering as merely 
“‘ presenting a deceptive resemblance to feathers,’ and he 
named it Griphosaurus (from yptpos, an enigma). 

Fortunately for English paleontologists, through the exer- 
tions of Professor Owen and Mr. G. R. Waterhouse (the latter 
of whom made it the object of a special journey to Pappenheim), 
this unique fossil has been acquired for the geological collection 
in the British Museum. Here it will be open to the observa- 
tion of all the world, and (before the issue of this present 
number) will be described by Professor Owen before the Royal 
Society, under the name of Griphoriis longicaudatus, who thus 
indicates his conviction that it is a bird.+ 

The lithographic limestone of Solenhofen, near Munich, 
presents a strong resemblance in lithological character to the 
White Lias, but its fossils are probably of the age of the Kim- 
meridge clay. The formation is of marine origin, and abounds 
in remains of cuttle-fishes, resembling im condition and cha- 
racter the fossils of our lower Oxford clay at Chippenham, 
ammonites, nautili, crustacea, fishes, and also of winged imsects 
and pterodactyles. From the immense demand for this stone 
for lithography, the quarries are as extensive as any in Hurope. 
The quarrymen work upon the lines of stratification, which are 
beautifully parallel, and all the fossils are found upon the 
natural surfaces, presenting an impression and counterpart mm 
almost every instance. The stone is often quarried to the 
depth of eighty or ninety feet! This feathered enigma presents 
precisely similar appearances to all the other included organic 
remains, being imbedded upon the surface of one layer, and 
impressed in intaglio mto the one overlying it, which bears not 
only the cast, but portions of the bones upon its surface. 

The feathers, which are most beautifully preserved upon the 
lower slab, were indistinct at first, being originally covered by 
a thin film of fine calcareous mud, which M. Hiberlein removed, 
so as to exhibit the tail and wings, and some further portions 
of the skeleton itself. The head, neck, and dorsal vertebre 
are wholly wanting. The right scapula and humerus and both 
the fore-arms are well preserved: the former bones are present 
on the left side, but imperfect; the fore-arm consists of radius 
and ulna; a metacarpal bone is present on the left side, lying 


* The friend appears to have heen his present successor in the museum of 
Munich, Dr. Oppel. 

+ The figure presented herewith is sketched from the actual specimen, and | 
carefully reduced. Professor Owen decided at the last moment to retain the name 
Archeopteryx. 


318 On a Feathered Fossil. 


beside the radius and ulna; there are also some small detached 
bones, which no doubt are finger bones. Above the wing 
feathers on the left hand may be noticed two small slender 
bones, to which sharp claws, similar to those of the foot, 
are articulated. These may have been used for clinging, like 
those of the pterodactyles and bats, or as offensive weapons, 
hike the fighting spur with which the wings of the spur-wmged 
goose of the Cape and Central Africa, the Chaja Screamer 
(related to the Rails) from Cayenne, and some others are 
armed. 

The “ merrythought,” or furculum, is seen lymg between 
the wings. ‘The ribs, small and unbird-like, are detached, and 
scattered on the surface, as if the head, neck, breast, and body 
had been torn off or eaten out by some other bird of prey or 
small carnivorous animal, wandermg at low water upon the 
estuarine flats bordering that ancient oolitic sea. 

The lower right limb is well preserved, and consists of femur, 
tibia, and tarso-metatarsal bones; to the latter bone four toes 
are articulated, one hind toe and three fore toes, having seve- 
rally 1, 2, 3, and (4?) jomts, as im all birds, and armed with 
strong hooked claws. The thigh and shank only of the nght 
lhmb remain. The pelvis is well preserved on the left side, 
showing the cup-shaped cavity in which the head of the femur 
moved.t 

The sacrwm (so conspicuous in all known birds) cannot be 
traced in this skeleton, unless the staimed surface of the stone 
indicates its remains. That one existed by which a few at least 
of the sacral vertebrae were firmly fixed together may be fairly 
concluded, for the hind limbs seem well adapted for hopping, 
running, or perching; and the wings (which evidently were 
adapted for fight) must also have received support in propor- 
tion to their size from the body of the animal. 

The whole of the vertebree of the tail are completely and 
beautifully preserved. They are twenty in number, of a narrow, 
elongated form, the dimensions of which slowly but constantly 
diminish, so that the last is the smallest. The feathers of the 
tail are attached in pairs to each vertebra throughout its entire 
length. Itisim the form and number of the caudal vertebree, 
and the arrangements of the tail feathers, that the great and 
striking peculiarity of this remarkable creature lies. 

In all recent birds we find the tail very short and powerful, 
composed of vertebrae varying from five to nine in number, 
having spinous processes on their upper and under side, and 


* The fourth toe bones underlie the second and third, and cannot be certainly 
counted. 

+ The fossil is lying on its Jack, so that we view the underside of its feathers 
and bones. 


On a Feathered Fossil. 319 


the last vertebra very peculiarly formed, and, with few ex- 
ceptions, always the largest. To this last jomt all the tail 
feathers in living birds are attached, and on it we find that 
pecuhar oil-gland to which the bird applies its beak, and so 
anoints and renders waterproof every feather of its body. 

Taking into consideration the remarkable divergence pre- 
sented by the tail of this fossil creature from all known birds, 
and also the antiquity of the formation in which it occurs, we 
may at least safely infer that (if 1b be a bird atall) it represents 
perhaps one of the very earliest examples of its class. 

And this seems the more consistent when we consider the 
analogous change which has taken place in the class of fishes. 

Hor in the oldest fossil fish we find the same curious elon- 
gated tail (seen only in the sharks and sturgeon of the present 
day), in which the vertebral column is prolonged imto the 
upper lobe of the caudal fin, forming the characteristic feature 
of the Heterocercal fishes. Whereas in the almost universally- 
prevailing type of modern fishes the tail fin springs from the last 
jowmt of the vetebral column, giving us the order of Homocercal, 
or even-tailed fishes. 

That the feathers were real bona jide feathers like those of 
a bird seems to be placed beyond all doubt by the evidence of 
the impressions of both wings and tail, descending, as they do, 
to microscopic exactness. It has been suggested that a creature 
furnished with such feathers must have had u beak to keep 
them in order with. 

Among the flying lizards of the Solenhofen slates is one de- 
seribed by H.Von Meyer, under the name of Rhamphorhynchus, 
as having “the fore part of each jaw without teeth, and probably 
incased ina horny beak; but behind this edentulous portion 
there are four or five large and long teeth followed by several 
smaller ones. ‘The tail long, stiff, and slender.’ Such a flying 
reptile might have been endowed with feathers, in which case the 
toothless portion, incased in a horny beak, would be well 
adapted for pluming and cleaning its wings and tail. 

Such is the present state of the evidence. There is nothing 
in this fossil which elucidates the origin of the bird tracks of 
Connecticut, although perhaps contemporaneous with them. 

Professor Owen decidedly inclines to the opinion that this 
curious creature is a bird, but many very distinguished natu- 
ralists, who have carefully examined it, have professed them- 
selves unable to come to any such positive conclusion. 

Much light may be expected from the Professor’s promised 
paper, but we must wait for the discovery of other specimens 
before we can arrive at a complete demonstration of the true 


character of this wonderful inhabitant of a former world. 
1072 Nov. 1862. 


320 The Origin of Infusoria. 


THE ORIGIN OF INFUSORIA. 


Ty a recent address on physiology, delivered before the British 
Medical Association, Dr. Sharpey said, “In the physiology of 
reproduction, the old question of spontaneous generation has 
been lately revived and submitted to further discussion ; but, as 
I think, has been satisfactorily answered in the negative, and 
especially through the admirable researches of M. Pasteur. 
That most able and accomplished inquirer has not only proved 
the non-appearance of infusorial organisms when adequate 
means are taken to exclude their germs, but he has succeeded 
in actually demonstrating the presence of such germinal spores 
in the atmosphere. Air was made to pass through a tube filled 
with gun-cotton, taken from a sample proved to be free from 
foreign admixture. ‘The cotton was then dissolved in ether or 
chloroform, and the sporules of algze and other small organisms 
which had been entangled in their passage, were found in the 
liquid.” In a former article, on the ‘Conditions of Infu- 
sorial Life,’ we gave a faithful account of the real state of this 
singular controversy, which is decidedly misrepresented by Dr. 
Sharpey’s remarks. In the first place, it is not fair to M. 
Pouchet, the leader of the heterogenists, whose opinions we by 
no means espouse, to treat the contest which is eagerly pursued 
in France, and which has extended to America, as merely a re- 
vival of the old dispute about “ spontaneous generation.” The 
details of M. Pouchet’s views will be found in his own work, 
Heterogemie, or in the article to which we have referred, and we 
do not intend to re-examine them now; suffice it to say that 
he reduces all generation to one principle, and ccnceives repro- 
duction by eggs (orthogenesis), and reproduction without eggs 
(heterogenesis), to be the result of the same laws operating under 
different conditions. “‘If,’ says M. Pouchet, ‘“‘a Supreme 
Being, whose unity is revealed in every part of the globe, has 
presided eternally and universally over all the phenomena that 
have been exhibited on its surface, and if it has pleased him to 
people the earth with tribes of animals and of plants that have 
succeeded one another, why not repeat to-day what has occurred 
in former epochs, for as P. Gorini observes, spontaneous genera- 
tion is not a greater marvel than normal reproduction.” M. 
Pouchet affirms in another passage that the same “‘ Creative 
Will”? which originally caused physical matter to assume living 
form, without the previous intervention of sexual elements, 
operates still. Thus both physiologically and theologically the 
modern controversy differs from the old, and it is only repre- 
sented otherwise by those who would rather smother it under 
evil associations, than patiently wait for a result that can only 
be reached by much labour and thought. 


Lhe Origin of Infusoria. 321 


As we stated in a former paper, the simplicity of the appa- 
ratus employed by M. Pasteur gives great value to his experi- 
ments, for it must be extremely difficult to shut out all sources 
of error, when a series of vessels with numerous joints are 
employed, but some of his opponents deserve equal credit for the 
method they have adopted. Practically the question to be 
first decided is, whether any vital organisms can appear in 
infusions in which existing germs have been destroyed, and to 
which the access of fresh germs is rigorously prevented. It has 
been assumed that boiling an infusion destroys any life or germ 
of life that it contains, and that when air is made to traverse a 
red-hot tube a similar result takes place. Now it cannotibe 
said that, in adopting these methods, M. Pasteur has “ proved” 
the necessary non-appearance of infusorial organisms, as Dr. 
Sharpey asserts, because opposite results have been obtained by 
other able experimentors who have made analogous trials. In 
France Messrs. Pouchet, Joly, and Musset, and im America 
Professor Wyman, adduce experiments that flatly contradict 
those of M. Pasteur. We gave someaccount of Mr. Wyman’s 
experiments in number ix, p. 229, and they will be found in 
detail in Silliman’s Journal, or in the Chemical News of 
August 30th. Several of these triais were made as described 
in the following extract :—‘“‘'Two flasks each of 550 ¢. c. capa- 
city, and each containing about 20 ¢.c. of beef juice and urine, 
were hermetically sealed at the temperature of the room, 
wrapped in cloth, and exposed for two hours in boiling water. 
The film formed on the fourth day. One of them was opened 
on the fifth, and the other on the eleventh, aud both found to 
contain Bacteriums.” In experiment 35, pieces of mutton in a 
hermetically sealed flask were boiled for ten minutes in a Papin’s 
digester, under the pressure of five atmospheres. ‘ No film 
was formed. The flask was opened on the forty-first day. 
Monads and vibrios were found, some of the latter moving 
across the field. No putrefaction, the solution had an alkaline 
taste.” In four imstances out of thirty-three no organisms 
appeared, but the balance of the results was discordant with 
those of M. Pasteur, Professor Asa Gray being present at the 
opening of some of the flasks. In experiment 12, the juice of 
an ounce of beef, to which was added 10 ¢.c. of urime and 
40 c.c. of water, was boiledtwenty minutes in a bolt-head and 
hermetically sealed. A film formed on the fourth, and the 
flask was opened on the eleventh day, when there was a distinct 
rush of air outwards. Large numbers of Bacteriums were 
found, also small spherical bodies with cilary motions and 
oval bodies like kolpods, containing what appeared to be Bac- 
teriums. One of these kolpod-like bodies moved with cilia. 

After these experiments, it 1s obvious that there is some- 


Seen) The Origin of Infusoria. 


thing else to be done than simply to acquiesce in the results of 
M. Pasteur, notwithstanding his scientific eminence and skill. 
Nor is it true, as Dr. Sharpey appears to conceive, that the 
presence of germinal spores in the atmosphere, sufficient to 
account for the appearance of infusoria in solutions, has been 
ascertained. M. Pasteur certainly discovered some spore-like 
bodies, but we believe he never identified any of them as eggs 
of infusorial animals. Professor Wyman states as the result of 
many examinations of dust deposited in attics, and of the par- 
ticles floating in air and collected on glass-plates covered with 
glycerine, that like Pouchet, he found grams of starch, and 
spores of cryptogams, and much less frequently what appeared 
to be eges of invertebrate animals, but that “ both eogs and 
spores may be said to be of rare occurrence.” It will, how- 
ever, be asked whether the eggs of infusoria could be discoverd 
by the methods employed. M. Balbiani gives a table (which 
will be found at the close of this article) of the number and 
dimensions of the ova produced by various animalcules, and 
as will be seen on reference to our account of his remarks in 
No. 6, p. 468, he describes them as so transparent that their 
form can only be made out by employing dilute acetic acid to 
augment their cohesion and refractive power. It would pro- 
bably be impossible, especially without the employment of re- 
agents, to see those bodies after they had been caught in a 
film of glycerine, or still worse, in one of olive oil which MM. 
Joly and Musset employed, and we should certainly not be 
warranted in assuming the non-existence of infusorial ova in 
consequence of the failure of a comparatively clumsy means 
of investigation. 

With reference to the appearance of Bactertums or similar 
objects in infusions apparently free from lving germs of any 
kind, we may observe that scarcely anything is known concern- 
ing these minute organisms. Hhrenberg placed them among the 
animals, and inferred their possession of a plurality of stomachs ! 
Other investigators regard them as vegetables, and Mr. H. J. 
Clark, of Cambridge, U.S., claims some of them as nothing 
more than portions of decomposed muscular fibre or tissue. 
Probably these objects, which assume the form of exceedingly 
minute chains, more or less flexible and moveable, differ widely 
in their real nature, and some of them may not even be alive at all. 

M. Pouchet now deposits with the French Academy a fresh 
batch of prmted and MS. matter on Heterogenesis, to compete 
for the Alhumbert prize, and MM. Joly and Musset send in 
for the same purpose their Nowvelles Htudes swr ? Heterogenie, a 
brief account of which is given in Comptes Rendus, September 
22, from which we select the most interesting facts. They took 
a series of flasks holding one litre, and contaiming forty grammes 


The Origin of Infusoria. 328 


of the same decoction, together with air that had been passed 
through red-hot tubes (air calciné). Then, following the method 
of M. Pasteur, they caused a little tube containing gun-cotton, 
charged with dust from the air, and ‘ subjected to the action of 
burnt air,” to fall into flask A. The neck of the flask, also filled 
with the burnt air, was sealed ina lamp. In flask B, prepared 
in the same way, they placed a piece of gun-cotton, selected 
from the middle of a considerable mass of that material which 
had been kept in a closed bottle, and was as free as possible 
from atmospheric dust particles. In C they placed the same 
decoction, with calcined air, and no cotton, while D was sub- 
jected, like the preceding, toa second ebullition, but was allowed 
to remain open. A fifth, H, was closed during the second boiling. 
After five days A was opened, and found to contain long Bac- 
teriums, and a clot of a branching and entangled mycelium. 
This was the result obtamed by M. Pasteur. B was opened two 
days later, and contained what the writers call dead Bacteriums 
reduced to granulations, and on a portion of the gun-cotton which 
extended beyond the tube there was a fine mycelium identical 
with that in A. Cwas opened on the same day with A, and ex- 
hibited Bacteriums, but rather fewer than A, and no mycelium. 
“This result,” say MM. Joly and Musset, ‘ confirms once more 
those which we obtained last year, in repeating the experiment 
of Schwann, and it proves, contradictmg the assertions of M. 
Pasteur, that air heated and then cooled does not leave intact the 
juice of meat which has been exposed to ebullition. On the 
sixth day, D, which had remained open, exhibited no infusoria, 
but two days later swarmed with long and active Bacteriums. 
Hight days later H exhibited no infusorial life. Another 
set of experiments showed that distilled water containing a tuft 
of gun-cotton charged with atmospheric dust produced few 
organisms, and sometimes none; that similar water, to which a 
considerable quantity of dust was added, yielded Bacteriums and 
monads; that if aster leaves, carefully washed in pure water, 
were placed in distilled water, ciliated infusoria appeared. Dis- 
tilled water used to wash a large quantity of mercury from a 
pneumatic trough ‘remained unfertile, although one of the 
enemies of heterogeny affirmed that a single globule of mercury 
was enough to people any infusion.” 

Followmg M. Pouchet, MM. Joly and Musset placed a 
considerable quantity ofa filtered infusion of chopped hay in one 
vessel, and then floated in it a smaller vessel containing some of 
the same infusion. In the large vessel they obtained ciliated 
infusoria, and only Bacteriums and monads in the little one. It 
is not stated how long they kept these vessels to see what they 
would yield. 

It is possible that after a greater lapse of time ciliated in- 


O24 The Origin of Infusoria. 


fusoria might have appeared in the smaller vessel, as they can 
certainly be obtained with very small quantities of fermenting 
hay ;* but if not, it does not follow, as these gentlemen consider, 
that the existence of germs in the atmosphere is disproved, as 
the small quantity of filtered infusion may not have contained 
enough of some particular substance to facilitate the develop- 
ment of any germs which might have fallen into it. 

Jt is evident that controversies of this kind tend to clear up 
obscure points in the history of infusoria, and it is a pity that 
in England, as on the Continent, they cannot be regarded 
from a purely scientific point of view. It is not honest to take 
no account of facts that contradict our own notions, to cite 
Pasteur, and omit Pouchet or Wyman. As the matter really 
stands, there are discrepancies which have to be explaimed, and 
the vast assemblage of objects grouped together as “ ifusoria” 
differ so widely in structure as to countenance the idea that 
their mode of origin may not be the same. We may mention 
that the French Academy has appomted a Commission, com- 
posed] of M.M. Milne-Hdwards, Flourens, Brongniart, and 
Coste, to report upon the papers on Spontaneous Generation 
sent in to compete for the Alhumbert prize. 


THe Eacas or Inrusoria (Balbian). 
Diameter of Eggs 


Name of Species. a ber of “in fractions of a 
88° Millemetre.+ 

ieee Omen 5 6 5 « 2 0-120 
Amphileptus gigas (7?) . . 20—25 0-018 
= ANAS ap de Me We 2 : 0-008 
Loxophyllum meleagris . . 12—15 0-015 
lWoxodesirostrum yj: ak. |. 15—20 0-015 
Chilodon cuecullus . . . . 1 0:005—0-020 
Bursaria truncatella . . . 4, 0:057 
Ophryoglena flava ... . 4, 0-018 
Spirostomum teres . . . 2—3 0-018 
5 ambiguum . 20—50 0-014 
Stentor ceruleus . . . . 8—15 0-021 
Huplotes patella . .. . 2, 0-014 

Stylonichia mytilus . . . A, 0018 
3 pustulata . . A 0-010 
Urostyla (undetermined) . 100 or more 0-007 
Paramecium aurelia . . . A, 0-018 
- bursarias eae 2—4, 0-014 
~ (undetermined) 20—25 0-007 


* Mr. Slack tells us that he has obtained kolpods and other ciliated infusoria 
in yessels containing half a grain of chopped hay and two drachms of distilled 
water. 

+ The millemetre is equal to 00394 of an inch. 


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The Whip-Worm. 325 


THE WHIP-WORM. 


BY T. SPENCER COBBOLD, M.D., F.L.S., 


Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, and Botany, at the Middlesex 
Hospital Medical College. 


(With a Tinted Plate.) 


A MORE appropriate name than the above could scarcely be 
devised for this interesting parasite. The species which 
dwells in the human body appears to have been first noticed 
by the distinguished Itahan anatomist John Paptist Mor- 
gaoni, and it was subsequently described by Buttner and 
Roederer, under the generic title of Trichwris, signifying 
hair-tailed worm. ‘The circumstances which led to its re- 
discovery are thus recorded by Moquin-Tandon in (Hulme’s 
edition of) his Hlements of Medical Zoology: “ During the 
winter of 1760-61, a student of Gottmgen, who was dissect- 
ing the valve of the colon in the body of a young girl five years 
old, accidentally opened the cecum, when several entozoa 
came out. H. A. Wrisberg and some other students considered 
that these worms belonged to a species not previously known. 
The prosector, C. T. Wagler, maintained that they were Oxy- 
urides of a very large size. Other persons mistook them 
for very small Ascarides. From this a serious discussion, or 
rather quarrel, arose, which might have been easily settled if 
the newly-discovered worm had only been carefully compared 
either with an Ascaris or an Oxyuris. Roederer, having heard 
of the dispute, had the animal in question brought to him, and 
having examined it with Buttner, they both came to the con- 
clusion that it was a new species.” They accordingly named 
it Trichuris, under an erroneous impression that the long, nar- 
row, filamentary part of the body was only the tail. All the 
species of the genus as now known display this remarkable cha- 
racter more or less conspicuously, and in some, as, for example, 
in the one selected for illustration in the accompanying plate 
(fig. 1), the thong-hke portion of the worm is extremely 
attenuated. 

As frequently happens upon the discovery of any novelty, 
all sorts of strange notions were soon afloat as to the signifi- 
cance of this new parasite, and consequently we find an other- 
wise intelligent physician writing a long dissertation, De Morbo 
Mucoso, with the view of proving that this perfectly harmless 
little whip-worm was the sole cause of a choleraic dysentery 
raging in the ranks of a division of the French army then 
stationed at Gottingen. Other crude ideas, unsupported 
by facts, were taken up and exploded in due time, whilst 


326 The Whip-Worm. 


the worm itself proved a puzzle to Linneus and other 

zoologists. In 1782 that worthy German pastor and na- 

turalist, J. A. H. Goeze, solved a number of difficulties re- 
specting the structure, economy, and zoological relations of this 
parasite, and in hisadmirable Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der 

Hingeweidewiirmer thierische Korper, we find him remarking ag 

follows :—“ The genus is rare. We have hitherto found this 

worm only in man, in a horse, in a wild hog, in a mouse, and 
in a footless bzard. From an examination of these, however, it 
is evident that they are not one and the same species, for they 
are not all similarly formed; but some, as that described by 

Pallas, are furnished with other organs. I make, therefore, 

two classes, as | have before mentioned, and in order that we 

should in future more agreeably recognize the Hair-head as 

Trichocephalos, I shall prove by undeniable facts that the 

capillary extremity is answerable to the head.” From these 

and other observations of Goeze, it appears tolerably conclu- 
sive that he was the first to give a correct interpretation as to 
the true character of the narrow portion of the whip-worm. 

The various forms to which he alludes are now generally ad- 

mitted to be distinct species; the one from the lizard (Bipes 

Pallasii) having been referred by Rudolphi to a distinct genus, 

under the title of Sclerotrichum echinatwm. 

Some eight or ten different species of Trichocephalus have 
been described by helminthologists; the two most common, 
and by their similarity of external characters hkely to be con- 
founded together, being the whip-worm of man and that of our 
domestic ruminants. The former (Tvrichocephalus dispar) has re- 
peatedly been made the subject of minute investigation, but the 
latter (Z’. affinis) 1s comparatively less known, and its mtimate 
structure little understood. We shall therefore confine our 
remarks principally to the species infesting cattle, and com- 
mence our special account of its peculiarities by offerme a com- 
plete synonymy as follows :— 

Trichocephalus affinis, Rudolphi; Gurlt; Miram; Lamarck ; 
Mayer; Dujardin; Diesing ; Cobbold (inn. Trans., vol. 
xxl. tab. 33, p. 352). 

Trichocephalus Camel, Rudolphi. 

Trichocephalus Ovis, Abildgaard. 

Trichocephalus Giraffe, Clot-Bey; Diesing (species inqui- 
rendee). 

Trichocephalus gracilis, Cobbold (Proceed. Zool. Soc. for 1860, 

. 108). 

— ee investigation we are satisfied that Clot-Bey’s 
T. Giraffce and our own 1’. gracilis are one and the same species, 
both beme referable to the J. affinis of Rudolphi, which has 
now, therefore, been found in various kinds of oxen, sheep, 


The Whip-Worm. 327 


antelopes, and deer; in the goat, the giraffe, and also, according 
to Diesing, in the porcupine (Histria cristata). 

If attention be directed to the accompanying plate illustra- 
tion, it will be seen that we have represented two individuals of 
T. affinis, the upper one being a female, and the lower a male, 
which is easily recognized by its gracefully curved spiral tail. 
To the naked eye these whip-worms do not differ materially 
from those found in our own bodies, but on microscopic ex- 
amination a distinction, especially in the males, is readily ob- 
served. With the pocket-lens, as we have elsewhere remarked, 
the surface of the worm appears smooth throughout; but, 
when highly magnified, peculiar markings are seen on the an- 
terior thin portion, which probably also extend over the body 
proper. ‘The so-called neck presents a tolerably uniform 
thickness along its entire course ; it is so narrow as to measure 
only from the +4, to 745 of an inch transversely, whilst the 
finely-pointed head itself, immediately below the mouth, has a 
diameter less than the +,'5, of an inch. In the fresh state the 
head appears to be lobed; or, rather, furnished with two 
aleeform lobed appendages, as represented in fig. 2; but in 
preserved specimens these appearances either partially or 
entirely disappear, leaving one in doubt as to their true nature. 
Kuchenmeister has noticed the evanescence of apparently 
similar structures surrounding the mouth of Trichocephalus 
dispar, and therefore supposes that the lobes im question are 
due to the presence of a peculiar organ, capable of eversion 
and inversion, and not merely the result of accidental sarcode 
globules. Be that as it may, it 1s surprising to notice how 
completely other well-marked external and internal characters 
alter or disappear from shrinking and distortion caused by 
immersion in spirit. This observation especially applies to a 
very pecular longitudinal band which commences a little 
below the head and can be traced on one side of the neck the 
whole way down to the beginning of the so-called body. This 
band, which is remarkably distinct in fresh specimens, was 
first discovered by Dujardin, who states it to consist of pro- 
minent and pointed papille. Wedl has also described it as 
consisting of little warts and spines; whilst Kuchenmeister 
goes so far as to compare these little prominences to the hook- 
lets present on the intromittent organ of the male. 

According, however, to our own observations, this band is 
made up of projecting, bluntly-pomted, polygonal, epidermal 
cells, which in certain adjustments of the focus refract transmitted 
light so strongly, that the band of them looks as if it consisted 
of a regularly arranged series of pigment spots, as shown in fig. 
3 a; at other times the centre of each cell becomes clear (a), and 
the irregularly polygonal character of each individual cell is 


O28 The Whip-Wornv. 


rendered more apparent. On one side of the longitudinal band 
Dujardin also figures and describes a series of minute super- 
ficial papillze, which he associates with a festooned border of 
the band. We have not observed these prominences, and the 
festooned markings are manifestly due to the subjacent convo- 
lutions of the cesophagus (b), being singularly uniform in size 
and disposition. In the fresh state the dermal rings (¢ c) are 
beautifully distinct. They are said to extend all round the 
filamentary neck, but we found them ceasing at a little distance 
apart from either margin of the longitudinal band. Midway 
between the latter and the serrated border of the neck there 
exists internally a double row of oval corpuscles (d d), but no 
vessels or fibres were observed in connection with them. As 
regards the reproductive organs, the first thing that strikes 
one is the unusual length of the intromittent organ and its 
membranous sheath. This character is believed to be dis- 
tinctive ; at all events, it departs very materially from what is 
observable in Trichocephalus dispar, where the sheath forms 
externally a funnel-shaped tube. The organ in question is 
also itself included in a sheath-lke, muscular mass, apparently 
concerned in the evolution of the mtromittent organ; its free 
end is shown in fig. 5 (a). We have never seen this muscle 
exserted, but the cloacal opening (0) is sufficiently capacious to 
give it free passage, if necessary. The everted part of the 
sheath (¢) measures about the +4; of an inch in length; bemg 
perfectly transparent, n6dt always uniform in breadth, but 
covered throughout its entire extent with minute, conical, 
sharply-pomted spines, whose apices are directed backwards 
towards the body of the animal. 

The occasional absence of uniformity in the diameter of the 
sheath seems to us to be a point of some importance; for, un- 
less our examinations had extended over a considerable number 
of specimens, we might have believed ourselves to have found 
several distinct forms of T'richocephalus. At first this con- 
clusion seemed inevitable; but, finding several intermediate 
conditions between that of a simple cylinder, on the one hand, 
and that of a tube furnished with a large flask-shaped dis- 
tension near the free extremity on the other, it became evident 
that the variations of outline were only due to the degree of 
protrusion or contraction to which the organ had, in either 
case, attained. 

To make these appearances clearly understood we have 
added a woodcut, which should be compared with fig. 4 in the 
plate, where the sheath is extended to the utmost. In the 
cut the corresponding letters have the same meaning in both 
fioures, and they bear the following indications:—a, epidermis; 
b, cutis; c, cecal end of the testis; d, seminal duct; e, intestine; 


The Whip-Worm. 329 


VOL. II.—-NO. V. Ay AY 


330 The Whip-Worm. 


f, muscle surrounding the sheath of the intromittent organ, 
which latter is marked g; the same letter with one dot (q) 
marks the infundibuliform portion, whilst g indicates the ex- 
serted part of the sheath, which is armed with the minute 
retroverted spines; g, shows the flask, or cup-shaped ex- 
pansion of the free extremity of the sheath; h (fig. 2), the 
rings formed by contraction of a portion ofthe sheath; 7, the 
spiculum; 7 (fig. 1), the infundibuliform upper end of the 
same intromittent organ; and, its free pointed extremity ; 
k, an oval mass of granules in one of the flask-shaped pouches, 
apparently consisting of spermatic particles; /, the cloacal 
cavity, and m, the anus. These two illustrations have been 
drawn with the aid of a camera from specimens prepared by 
ourselves, and mounted for preservation in glycerine. They 
are pretty objects under the microscope, from the graceful 
ammonite-like spiral which the tail of the male Trichocephalus 
invariably exhibits. When highly magnified, the free ex- 
tremity of the spiculum is found to be scimitar-shaped, and 
rather sharply pointed. There were no markings on its surface, 
but we observed certain lines indicating the presence of a 
groove or tube, such as exists in 7. dispar. In regard to the 
reproductive organs of the female, Kuchenmeister states that 
there are no external appendages in T’richocephalus comparable 
to those known to occur in the allied nematodes belonging to 
the genus Tirichosoma. So far, however, from this being the 
case, there is in the present species, at least, a remarkably 
prominent, and more or less hourglass-shaped sheath project- 
ine from the body (fig. 6); it is obliquely truncated at the 
free end, where it is also hollowed out, or rather, we should 
say, inverted, to give origin to the centrally inclosed vagina, 
whose orifice 1s somewhat constricted. The surface of this ap- 
pendage is supplied with small spines, precisely similar to those 
described in connection with the sheath of the intromittent 
organ of the male, the spines being here also retroverted. These 
observations are confirmed by the previous statements of 
Mayer (Zeitschrift fur wissen. zool. B. 9, s. 367), but they have 
since been disputed by Dr. Eberth, of Wurzburg (on insufficient 
grounds we believe), in a later number of Siebold and Kolliker’s 
Zeitsclvift. We do not here propose to reconsider the contro- 
verted points, but pass on to remark that the ova, as in other 
nematodes previous tc impregnation, are, at a certain stage, 
flat and irregularly triangular in outline ; the thin limiting mem- 
brane by which they are surrounded inclosing finely granular 
contents, as seen in fig. 7. In the perfectly developed egg, 
the external capsule, chemically composed of chitine, presents 
the same characters as in Trichocephalus dispar ; and at either 
pole of the ovum where the shell ends abruptly, an inner tran- 


Aspects of Nature in Southern Peru. oom 


sparent membrane is seen projecting, in the form of a small 
mamillary process. This is shown at fig. 8, where the egg also 
exhibits the yolk undergoing segmentation, and two charac- 
teristic nuclei in the mesial line. When fully mature the ova 
have a longitudinal diameter of 1-340th to 1-520th of an inch. 

Having thus dwelt at considerable length on the intimate 
structure of Trichocephalus afinis, it only remains for us to offer 
a few remarks on the present state of our knowledge respecting 
the development and migrations of this comparatively harmless 
species. In pomt of fact, we know little or nothing of the 
wanderings of this particular worm, but may legitimately 
infer the occurrence of certain habits from what we observe in 
the closely allied Trichocephalus dispar. Notlong ago Kuchen- 
meister expressed his opinion, somewhat over confidently, that 
the little Trichina spiralis found in the muscles of the human 
body was the young of the last named species ; but a series of 
beautiful researches by Virchow and Leuckart, carried on in- 
dependently, have shown that this view is inconsistent with fact. 
M. Davaine has also recently applied himself to the determina- 
tion of the development of I. dispar by direct experiment, and 
he finds that the embryonic formation only takes place within 
the ege after the ova have been expelled the host, and have 
been immersed in water for a period of about six months; 
consequently it may be surmised that either the mature ova or 
the escaped embryos gain access to our bodies in a passive 
manner when swallowed with the waters we drink. ‘lhe subject, 
however, needs further investigation, and the experiments 
which we ourselves instituted on this score have hitherto only 
produced negative results. 


ASPHCTS OF NATURE IN SOUTHERN PHRU. 


BY WILLIAM BOLLAERT, F.R.G.S. 


In order to illustrate some points of physical geography, 
I intend to take the reader to Peru, by the same route 
by which I went, namely, from England round Cape Horn, 
sighting its coast off Arica, in latitude 18° 20° south. I had 
experienced every species of temperature and weather—the 
cold of a northern winter, the burning, blistermg heat in the 
long calms of the equatorial regions, the frozen seas off Cape 
Horn; and one series of 8.W. gales lasted several weeks, 
which drove us far to the S.H. with thick and heavy weather, 
so that when we went on the starboard tack, trusting to clear 
Cape Horn, on a certain night we got landlocked, a little to 


302 Aspects of Nature in Southern Peru. 


the west of the cape, on an iron-bound and savage shore, and 
within an ace of being wrecked there. However, although our 
captain had told us to prepare for the worst, kind providence 
and good seamanship rescued us from our perilous situation, and 
the followmg morning we slid past the island of Cape Horn 
into Nassau Bay, where we took in wood and water. Here 
we found large quantities of celery gone to seed (originally 
left by early voyagers), which was a pleasant addition to our 
peasoup. 

I made the acquaintance here, for the first time, with the 
Red-Men of America; they were called on our charts the Red 
and Black Magellans, for as yet they had not been christened 
as Fuegians. I suspect they had been called red and black 
in consequence of their using red (oxide of iron) and black 
(charcoal) paint to their almost naked bodies. ‘These miserable- 
looking creatures, although pure red-men, had a dark tinge, 
which I then attributed to dirt and the cold climate. 

At last we get a favourable slant, running into the South 
Pacific Ocean, making a fair wind of the S.W. gales common 
in these latitudes, which soon carried us into warm, and then 
into hot weather. 

Our latitude and longitude tell us we are approaching 
Juan Fernandez, or Robinson Crusoe’s island; we sight it, 
continuing our course to the north, inclining a little to the east ; 
till one evening a white elevation is seen in the eastern horizon ; 
at daybreak, more white points are observed, and on the follow- 
ing day the mountains of the coast are beheld, and the uext 
morning we approach the shore of Arica. 

As we neared the coast, a high, dark, and escarped range of 
mountains rose abruptly from a placid sea; but when the swell 
found opposition to its onward course in the rocky barrier, it 
dashed against it sullenly, with a thundering noise, rising high 
up, curling round towards, and falling into, its native element, 
and spreading itself in rugged sheets of foam with a hissing 
sound. Hre it had died away, there was a repetition of the 
scene and sounds, that had something solemn in them, added 
to which not the slightest vegetation was to be seen. 

We next came in sight of the “‘ Morro,” or headland of Arica, 
where this same picture of desolation presented itself. Yes, I 
am not ashamed to confess it, my heart sank within me; but 
there I was, and there I had to remain for awhile. I was too 
young then to suppose that I should ever find the least charm 
in a desert life. It cost me a few silent tears, and it was some 
time before I could realize my situation. 

Here I met with the gentleman with whom I was to be 
associated in working some silver mines at Huantajaya, in the 
neighbouring province of Tarapacd; he was then and still is 


Aspects of Nature in Southern Peru. 3933 


known as Don Jorge, beloved by all who knew him. He had 
got used to these scenes, and his not quite so lively an organi- 
zation as my own, had caused him to feel less in comparing the 
lovely verdure of England with this dark frowning and desert 
shore. 

I geologized, I dug into ancient Indian tombs, examined 
with wonder the desiccated bodies of the children of the sun, 
the clothing of the dead, the gold, silver, and copper figures of 
deities, wonderfully-moulded pottery, and many other things ; 
I botanized in the valley of Arica—for I found tropical plants 
growing in the bed of the river; I crossed the sandy desert to 
Tacna, botanized up its valley to the base of the Cordillera, 
taking note of its wondrous elevation. J looked at and ex- 
amined the Indian of this locality, he was not the character I 
had pictured to myself; no, the three centuries of submission 
to the Spanish rulers had given even the young man an old 
and downcast look. I could scarcely believe that these were 
the descendants of those who had conquered for the Incas 
so much of the length and breadth of this land. If the 
country I was in was uncheering, the Indian was in conformity 
with it. 

The present Peruanos are criollos, or descendants of Spanish 
parents ; the mestizos are of the Spaniard and Indian female, 
the great majority being a mixed people, but I found them ali 
kind and hospitable. 

My friend Don Jorge had to remain awhile in Arica whilst 
I proceeded to Iquique, the port of the silver mines of 
Huantajaya. It was many years later that steamers were 
found plying along the coast from Panamé to Valparaiso; but 
the voyage from Iquique to Arica was not difficult, in con- 
sequence of the pretty general southerly winds and southerly 
current ;* it could even be made in an open boat or a seal-skin 
balsa or float, and the only little difficulty likely to occur was 
an upset by a “school of whales,” that come in shore at certain 
times of the year. The return, if by boat, was made during 
the night when the strong south wind had gone down, and 
what remained had veered to the eastward—this being the 
terral or land breeze; anchorage was found in some caleta, or 
cove, during the greater part of the day. 

At the beginning of 1826, I embarked on board the balandra 
“San Miguel,” for [quique, with mining and other implements. 


* This is sometimes called “Humboldt’s current.” In September, 1854, the 
“Guise,” Peruvian man-of-war, during a calm of twelve hours, was drifted fifteen 
miles to the N.W.; so when sailing vessels get to leeward of a port hereabouts, 
they may be several days fetching into their destination. 

On my last voyage to Europe in a sailing vessel, on a S.S.W. course, the third 
day from Arica, we got out of the cool water of this current, into warmer. 


304: Aspects of Natwre in Southern Peru. 


This vessel was a small and rudely constructed sloop employed 
in the guano trade then carried on for the use of the coast only. 
Her trips were from the guano deposit of Pavellon de Pica, 
south of Iquique, to Arica and other ports to the north. 

Since that period I have learnt not to be over-squeamish ; 
but what I suffered from the sickening guano stench of the 
“San Micuel,” I have a very vivid recollection of, even at this 
distant date. We had a twelve days’ voyage, having to beat 
ali the way; occasionally at night we got a favourable slant 
with the wind off the land, without which (having the current 
against us) our voyage might have been an interminable one, 
although only seventy-two geographical miles 

The coast was very bold and mountainous; not a tree or the 
merest sign of vegetation met the eye, and in this distance of 
seventy-two miles there were only two inconstant little streams, 
that came dribbling down from the Cordillera through the deep 
quebradas or gullies of Camarones and Pizagua, and they were 
always brackish, sometimes undrinkable. The next break con- 
taining a watercourse is one hundred and eighty-seven miles 
from Pizagua, where the river Loa flows, but its waters are 
sometimes as salt as brine. 

On this voyage I was fully initiated into the living of the 
country on board ship. A tea of the Yerba de Paragua, sucked 
through a tube, very much like hot liquorice water; toasted 
maize in lieu of bread; the eternal greasy stew of not over- 
fresh jerked beef, pumpkin, potatoes, and garlic, condimented 
with the never-failmg aji, or red capsicum, and this under 
calms and blistering suns! but how often have I wished for 
such fare whilst in those and other wild lands. 

During the day the swarm cf guano-making birds flymg 
about was something prodigious, and their diving for fish (so 
very abundant in these waters) mostamusing. Sometimes, when 
near in shore, the screaming of seals with the noise of the 
beating of the billows was anything but harmonious. 

The monotony of my voyage was somewhat broken by 
meeting with an American whaler, who was busy cutting up and 
boilmg a whale down. I went on board to dinner, but the 
effluvia there was rather more nasty, I think, than that of my 
own. vessel. 

One day being near the shore we let go anchor (a large stone 
i a wooden frame) in a cove. We had not long been there 
before I heard the captain and crew scream out “‘ Miserecordia !”’ 
and looking about saw them on their knees on the deck, 
devoutly crossing themselves and looking at me as I stood 
wondering, as if I really were a heretic. I asked the reason 
of this sudden act of theirs. “Temblor !” said they. I had 
indeedheard a slight rumbling noise, and then a sort of shake, 


Aspects of Nature wv Southern Peru. 335 


but had not attributed them to an earthquake; however, in 
time, I got as sensitive to such occurrences as the natives. 

One evening we had a beautiful tropical sunset; it was mag- 
nificent, and the colours most brilliant. The day had been 
cloudless and the sun shining brightly ; from gentle breezes it 
became a dead calm, and it appeared as if we were floating ona 
sea of glistening ultramarine; and as the sun was setting, 
the western sky, as if on fire, caused the sea to glow with 
its glorious reflections. The other portion of the heavens was 
tinted with light rose and lavender colours, blending harmo- 
niously into one another; and then the changes were so rapid! 
Wesee all this wonderful beauty for an instant—in a moment it 
is gone, and we have to call upon a traitorous recollection for a 
faint description. 

The arrival of the “ San Mieuel”’ was an event in the bay of 
Iquique. On one side was the rugged guano island, on the other 
high and precipitous mountains, and before us a small collection 
of the most miserable-looking habitations imaginable ; in the 
rear huge sandhills, and beyond them mountains, mountains, 
desert mountains ! 

I was landed by a swift sea-skimming seal-skin balsa; the 
whole population, consisting of some dozen families, were on the 
beach to give me a welcome, and a thousand inquiries as to 
when Don Jorge would return, and when we were to begin 
working the mines of Huantajaya. 

The occupation of the inhabitants of this desolate spot con- 
sisted in fishme and conveying imported provisions to the 
mines. Their miserable-looking habitations were built of 
rough porphyritic stone, cemented with mortar of burnt sar- 
gasso, or gigantic sea-weed, and sea-shells, and covered with 
mats brought from the north of Peru. The floors were of bare 
earth, and at one end was a raised part, which was the sleeping 
place; a small table and a stool was a luxury. The people 
appeared very happy, and even very kindly disposed, and 
seemed as if they were but of one family. 

After I had got somewhat accustomed to this strange scene 
of the most absolute sterility imaginable, I used to wander in 
the cool of the evening from one habitation to another—tertuli- 
ando, gossiping and listening to their stories—they to mine. 
Having a medicine chest, a lancet, and tooth drawer, I very 
soon was called ‘‘ Hl Seftor Doctor”! and I think I may most 
conscientiously state that I never did much harm during my 
medical career, although I have had to attend to diseases I knew 
nothing about, and perform operations with similar intelligence. 
With comparatively harmless medicines I was not very particular 
as to the dose, but when I had to deal with calomel or strong 
chemicals like blue pill I was most careful. 


336 Aspects of Nature in Southern Peru. 


I will now say a few words on the general features of the 
country. 

The Peru of the present day stretches from 3° 35’ S. to 
21° 48’ 8. along the shores of the Pacific, a length of 1250 
miles ; its greatest breadth is about 750 miles, with an area of 
512,122 square miles. After the revolutionary struggle, the 
Peru of the viceroys was divided into two parts, the one already 
alluded to, the other was called Bolivia, 700 miles in length by 
about 500 broad, three-fourths of which is a wilderness. For- 
merly it was called Charcas and Upper Peru. Its capital is in 
19° 3’ S., 64° 47’ W., and known under the names of La Plata, 
Sucre, and Chuiqusaca. 

The population of Peru is about 2,500,000, variously divided 
into Peruvians, white (the criollos of the Spaniards), and mixed 
with Indians (mestizos, or cholos, also with some little Negro 
blood), amounting to 900,000; Indians 1,460,000; Negroes 
40,000, who are free, and as they can regulate their own 
amount of industry, have no inclination to overwork themselves, 
so large numbers of Chinese are imported to Peru as labourers, 
miners, and diggers at the Guano Islands. 

Now as to the geographical division of the country. 

1. The coast, which is rainless. On the north is the great 
desert of Sechura, on the south the still more extensive desert 
of Atacama. Some streams of water, the produce, principally, 
of the melting of snows and glaciers in the Cordilleras, run 
down steep and deep quebradas or dells, nourishing the bottom 
only of the valleys of the coast; for where water runs, there 
only is vegetation seen. 

During the winter months of this region, on the lomas or 
summits of some of these mountaims of the coast a peculiar 
vegetation appears, which will be treated of by and by. 

2. The table-land. After a toilsome climb on mule back 
up the western slopes of the Cordilleras, and getting almost 
frozen to death, whilst going through the passes, some of 
which are over 16,000 feet above the level of the sea, and where 
a stunted vegetation has been long left behind, we descend to 
elevated table-lands, and of these the most interesting is that 
in which is situated the great Andean lake of Titicaca, 13,000 
feet above the level of the ocean, and enlivened by its own 
peculiar fish. On the islands of this lake, and on its shores 
(besides the Incarial Temple of the Sun on the Island of 
Titicaca) are observed the stone ruins of Tia~-Huanacu, some 
of the oldest monuments found in Peru; which even the 
Incas admired when they first discovered them. 

Out of this Thibet of the New World rise aloft the ranges 


known as the Andes, from 22,000 to 23,000 feet high above 
the sea. 


Aspects of Nature in Southeru Peru. oa 


We now descend to the east, having had an opportunity, in 
one day, of reaching a region of eternal glaciers, with no 
vegetation, and a most difficult atmosphere to breathe, in con- 
sequence of its extreme rarity. The peculiar character of that 
atmosphere once seen is not easily forgotten; it is of so dark 
an indigo colour as to look nearly black, where stars can be 
observed shining at mid-day, and the white outline of snow on 
the ridges of the Andes and Cordilleras is in beautiful contrast 
with those sombre heavens. 

In ascending the Cordillera the traveller may observe 
droves of the slow-moving and patient llama and alpaca; 
higher up he comes upon the timid, swift-fleemg herds of the 
huanaco and vicufia; in the table-land he may have met with 
a stray puma or even an ostrich from the eastern plains, but 
the only inhabitant of hfe he perceives at and above the 
elevation he has finally reached, is the mighty condor. 

In the descent to the east the first vegetation seen is the 
curious and large dome-shaped, very resinous, yareta plant (a 
Bolaz); then the ichw grass; this is the natural pasture of the 
auchenia or llama family, four im number; the vicuna and 
huanaco which are wild, the Nama and alpaca which are tame. 
We come now upon cacti, the resinous Tola shrub appears, 
further down grasses cover the mountains, and in their ravines 
plants and small trees; and descending still further, tropical 
vegetation is arrived at, covering the tops of the mountains in 
this region down to the streams and rivers that flow into the 
Amazon and the Plata. 

The silver mines of Huantajaya and Santa Rosa were up in 
the coast mountains, beyond which there was a great paimpa or 
plain where the ores were amalgamated, in consequence of 
water being obtained from wells there. [Further on was situ- 
ated Tarapaca, the capital of the province, the residence of the 
Intendente, El Seftor Coronel Don Ramon Castilla (now presi- 
dent of Peru), and there terciana or ague was endemic. ‘Then 
there was another spot called Pica, where wine and brandy 
were made, but where the ague was of the atabadillada, or 
spotted fever type; further off still, lived the Indians in the 
valleys of the Cordillera, on their little farms, and higher up in 
the mountains they tended llamas and alpacas. 

Now, in 1862, Iquique is a large place (the port for all that 
district, and second only in importance to Callao), containing 
from 5000 to 6000 souls, including a sprinkling of foreigners 
of all nations, churches, and some stately houses, a club, hotels 
—even an Italian opera has been performed there. 

In early times the town was supplied with water from the 
quebrada of Pizagua, forty geographical miles distant to the 
north ; now, all that is used for drinking is distilled from 


038 Aspects of Nature in Southern Peru. 


the ocean, and sells for about three half-pence the gallon, 
realizing some £40,000 to £50,000; the fuel for this operation 
being taken from England or Chile. This great change from 
when I first knew the place is owing to the discovery and the 
refining of Saliire, or nitrate of soda, some few leagues in the 
interior. 

Igquique stands on a thick stratum of shells near to the sea ; 
on the shore they are in a fair state of preservation, but going 
inland they assume all the stages of dismtegration, until where 
they touch on the rock of the country they are in fine powder, 
and on a dark night a slight phesphorescence may be observed 
in the shell-pits. Independent of mechanical disintegration, 
chemical changes have been going on, owing to some salt of the 
ocean having been left with the shells, and among them chlorides 
of lime, carbonates and sulphates of lime and soda (the last in 
very fine groups of crystals) are formed. Has this and similar 
sloping shell plas been: elevated by mternal forces of the 
earth, or has the sea retired? Perhaps the former is the more 
logical supposition. 

The climate is so dry that, during a three years 
there, I only once saw a very slight rain. 

The mean winter heat at noon is 67°, the mean summer heat 
80°, but in the sun it isscorching. Indeed, the coast would be 
unbearable on the score of heat if the winds during the lone 
summer of this latitude were not the cool breezes from the 
south, and were not the climate further tempered by the cool 
current from the south, running rather rapidly at times along 
the shores of the Pacific. 

The occupations of the natives, when not fishing (which took 
up but little time), were chatting and smoking. One day I asked 
an old fisherman, who appeared to me to be always smoking 
paper cigars, how many he smoked daily? He answered, forty ; 
and this he had done for some fifty years. At the price then of 
these paper cigars, he had smoked £470 worth, and 730,000 
cigars; and this for a ragged, shoeless fisherman! As the sale 
of tobacco and paper was a government monopoly, in these two 
articles alone what a tax on his luxury he had paid. 


> residence 


Submarine Architecture. 339 


SUBMARINH ARCHITECTURE. 


BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD. 


WaeEn Endymion saw ‘the giant sea above his head,” he was 
in no better position for moral reflections on the perishability 
of man’s work than we who sit im a small boat off Weymouth, 
perplexed for the moment by the abundant variety of objects 
just brought from the sea-bottom by the dredge. Hndymion 
trod his way timidly among things 
‘More dead than Morpheus’ imaginings : 
_ fOld rusted anchors, helmets, breastplates large, 
Of gone sea-warriors ; brazen beaks and targe: 
Rudders that for a hundred years had lost 
PThe sway of human hand.” 


So we, probing amongst the sand and shells, and wriggling 
annelids, and fleshy lumps of Actiniz, that have shrunk up m 
fear of the strange company and altered scene, have our 
thoughts turned aside from zoology proper by observing 
amonest the rubbish pieces of tile, chips of crockery, half- 
decayed nuts, a nail or two, and some other odd reminders of 
the earth and man which the sea has swallowed, to keep with 
other things until it shall have receded from these shores and 
left them buried with its own deposits of shelled and crusted 
forms, once living tenants of the deep. There is nothing, how- 
ever contemptible to minds unschooled im observation, but may 
furnish a subject for thought anda theme for discourse not 
altogether aimless, As an antiquarian will deduce materials to 
fill up some old gap in history by the examination of an in- 
scribed tile, so the odd findings of the dredge will be found 
equally fruitful in furnishing a stimulus to both inductive and 
deductive reasoning. Here is apiece of tile; ergo, it is the 
work of man. It is encrusted with colonies of serpule, and had 
it remained a few years longer in the watery depths, its shape, 
colour, and character would have been obliterated by the addi- 
tion of successive deposits of the same kind, and Nature would 
have effected that object which she has always in view, the oblite- 
ration of the traces of man’s art, and the appropriation to her 
own uses of whatever may fall from his hands. Precisely the 
same lesson is taught—so says Hmilius, sitting at the stern of 
the boat, and looking with some sort of contempt upon the 
strictly zoological part of the gathering—by the findings of the 
dredge as by the exploration of a ruined city. The moment man 
lets go any product of his industry, Nature begins the work of 
disintegration. She dissolves, triturates, corrodes; or, if she 
cannot do either, she hides under a living garment the records 
of the dead past. But we tell Hmilius that Nature does not 


340 Submarine Architecture. 


BOTTLE DREDGED AT WEYMOUTH, COVERED WITH ENCRUSTATIONS OF SEPULE, 
OYSTERS, ETC., ETC. 


Submarine Architecture. 341 


wait till man has bequeathed his works to her for resolution into 
their primary elements. She begs to grind a palace to powder 
the same day as it is built. ‘The dew and the sunshine are as 
effectual for the purpose as any other of her agencies, but she 
does not waste while destroying. She simply appropriates, and 
so, to justify the decay of the marble column or the sublime statue 
that enchants the world, she plants 1t at once with green and 
golden mosses, teaches the ivy to pierce it with its soft teeth, 
and, when it has fallen from its base, and the rains have made 
a pool around it, she sends other ministers to bore tunnels 
through the mass, and others to clothe it with incrustations, so 
that 1t soon becomes wholly hers, for appropriation to new 
purposes. 

Emilius wants to know if it is right to wander so far away 
from the subjects which gave rise to these remarks, when at 
the next haul we are presented with a treasure which makes us 
all forget our peculiar differences of taste and inclination, in 
admiring the beauty of a new illustration of the relations which 
may be established between the works of art and the works of 
nature. Broken bottles are frequently brought up by the 
dredge, and sometimes these are very beautifully incrusted with 
colonies of sea-creatures ; but here is one complete. It may have 
been a champagne or a Scotch ale bottle—we cannot tell 
which—and the deposits on its exterior are more beautiful and 
varied than any similar example which has ever come under 
our observation. Here, we agree, 1s a prize worth the labours of 
the day—a prize, too, which interests us all, the zoologists and 
the moralists alike; and as our day’s explorations have now 
come to an end, we discuss its merits and its history during 
the voyage home. 

After removing some of the sand and slimy forms which 
cling about it, and then carefully layime it on one side in a 
vessel of sea-water that its numerous inhabitants may be pre- 
served, we begin an investigation of the method in which it has 
been made so beautiful an example of marine masonry. It is 
smothered with Serpule, oysters, Balani, Lepralie, etc., and, 
whichever way we view it, we see myriads of trumpets, bird- 
beaks, tentacles, and siphons protruded from the cellular and 
tubular walls of this incongruous colony, which, like a city on a 
rock, has a very complete homogeneity in the close relationships 
of its various inhabitants. We call it the Acropolis, in the marine 
order of architecture, and the various inhabitants of the shells and 
tubes we liken to the trades and callings of the people of a terres- 
trial city. Itis no easy matter to distinguish and determine 
the several species associated in this great colonizing enterprise, 
but time and patience will do much, and by degrees we make 
out a sufficient number to furnish a pretty fair idea of the 


SAne Submarine Architecture. 


nature of the assemblage. We first of all notice particularly 
the Serpule. These form convoluted tubesin abundance, which 
are wreathed together and mixed up with other habitations in 
glorious confusion. Prominent amongst them is the noblest of 
the race, S. contortuplicata, the most easily identified as it 
pops up its feathery head and blows its coral trumpet in the 
midst of its meaner relatives, S. triquetra, intricata, filifornis, 
and rugosa, all of them abundant, covermg the smooth surface 
of the bottle with tubular and angular constructions, and, in 
some places, running together to inextricable knots, the tubes 
overlaying each other, and leaving only just enough room for 
their several gill threads to peer out like the red faces of a crowd 
in the street, where the faces are all that can be distinguished. 
Filograna implexa, with its thread-like tubes, may just be iden- 
tified in the midst of two distinct blocks of Serpule, but its 
scarceness is compensated by the crowded state of the masses 
from which myriads of gill fans are protruded. Hqually con- 
spicuous, though less attractive, are the oysters. I have since 
counted eighteen oysters in all upon the bottle. While in the 
boat, and our attention divided between inquiry and admiration, 
we agreed that, as regards oysters, 1b was “ smothered ;” a con- 
clusion of far too sweeping and general a kind. Yet we were 
then not far from the truth, because after counting off eighteen 
distinct and veritable oysters, there remain some two dozen 
more little oysters of the size of split peas, embedded in masses 
of Serpule, Balani, and Spirorbis. But though less attractive 
still, because untenanted, we agree that the most curious ele- 
ments in the construction are two shells near the base, firmly 
cemented and embedded in a mass of sponges and Yubuli- 
pora. How came they there? Were they attached durmg 
the life of the animals, or after the shells had ceased for ever 
the service they were ordained for in the individual life of the 
creatures? One of these is an old weather-worn valve of Car- 
dium echinatum ; the fellow-valve may be there below it, but 
is not to be distinguished amidst the mass of masonry of which 
the visible shell is the principal foundation. Jt is embraced at 
both edges by Serpula contortuplicata. S. triquetra doubles 
over and over like a miniature coil of rope, which the sea boy 
has confused, and will be sorely puzzled to restore to order; and 
at the margin it melts eway all round into a mass of little 
oysters, Membranipora, and the remains of Jlustra, Terebella, 
and sponges. The other is a shell of Buccinum undatum in a 
far advanced stage of disintegration. It lies far out from the 
base of the bottle, with its operculum cemented to the back of 
a large oyster-shell of six or seven years old. It is coated all 
over with acorn barnacles ; the operculum is connected with the 
oyster-shell by a mass of sponge, and several commixed wreaths 


Submarine Architecture. 343 


of Serpula contortuplicata, among the windings of which are 
several miniature oysters. The spire is covered with patches 
of sponge, Lepralia, and Balani, and a sort of stippled marking 
in other parts of the shell indicate that some other colonies had 
commenced operations when we hauled it up, and arrested for 
a while the progress of the submarine architecture. 

When we have made this general survey, and are still in 
doubt as to the genera and species of a few of the deposits, we 
ask each other in a chorus: “‘ How is it done? who begins it? 
How is a hold first made upon the slippery surface of a glass 
bottle??? We take it out of the vessel, detach a few of the 
Actimiz that have insinuated themselves between the folds of 
the Serpulee, and turn it upside down. The hollow foot is as 
bright and clean as when the bottle was cast overboard by some 
party of merry yachters seven, eight, or ten years since. The 
sea water has not even corroded it, and the vitreous surface has 
an almost new look and polish. We reverse it, and peep inside. 
There, too, the surface glistens, and betrays no corrosion by 
chemical action, and the bottle is as empty as when it first left 
the glass works. Strange that no troglodytic anemone, no 
nereis or polyzoon is to be found there. Why should these 
creatures, that people the sea bottom in myriads, avoid the 
inside, and yet so love the outside of a champagne bottle? 
Does the discrimination betray a faithfulness to Neptune 
against Bacchus,—adherence to the good uncle, and a careful 
avoidance of the giddy nephew? No doubt the Serpule and 
Cirripedes have their hkes and dislikes, and here is an example 
thereof. 

When we drain the bottle dry, and examine it with a lens, 
we begin to understand something of the rationale of marine 
architecture. Hvery one of the larger tubes and shells rests on 
a foundation of deposits formed by some lower forms of life. 
Scattered over the surface are the remains of colonies of Le- 
pralia of several species, amongst which L. Pallasiana may be 
distinguished by the form of the cells, as the most conspicuous. 
These patches thicken towards the larger attachments, and in 
nearly every case unite around them in unbroken masses, and 
form the foundations of oysters and serpule. ‘There are other 
patches of Nolella stipata (Gosse) the orifices of which are 
imperceptible to the naked eye, but under a good lens easily 
discernible, each with its bell of tentacles, which by their 
quietude contrast prettily with the irritant beaks of the 
Lepralia. The rarest of this class of encrusting polyzoa are 
Membramipora membranacea, and M. pilosa, both of which 
appear in little detached rings, suddenly invested on one side 
with the outgrowth of some of the larger patches of Lepralia. 
Then mixed with these are masses of Pachymatisma Johnstonia 


344 Submarine Architecture. 


(Bowerbank) and Halichondric of species not determinable. 
Above these rise the conspicuous and characteristic shells of 
the Balanidc, and these last mix and intermix in all directions 
as foundations and superpositions, but there is not one of the 
Lepadidee to be found anywhere. The process of the super- 
structure appears then to be very much according to the order 
of the several creatures comprised in the colony; the lowest 
and the meanest, the Polyzoa, begin the work, the Cirripedes 
continue it, and the nobler Annelids and Mollusks take pos- 
session when the slippery surface has been roughened and the 
foundations of the city laid by their humbler predecessors. 
The proper elevation of the Barnacles to companionship with the 
Crustaceans proper, by Darwin, has a very pretty confirmation 
in the free and easy way in which they take possession of all 
sites, build anywhere, now on a foundation crust of true polyzoa, 
and now on the worn surface of an oyster, cockle, or whelk shell. 
There would be an end of the story, but we have yet to account 
for the attachment of the two mollusks last named in the short 
description of the species constituting this pretty colony. We 
know pretty well how serpulz and oysters anchor themselves. 
Creatures capable of manufacturing calcareous shells from sea- 
water can have little trouble in attaching them, and they appear 
to wait, before taking possession of a slippery substance, until the 
pioneers of marine colonization have prepared the foundation of 
the city. But how comes a whelk or a scallop to be mixed up 
with a mass of oysters, serpule, and barnacles, and to be 
cemented to the base of this bottle. It would be a greater 
puzzle were they found anywhere but at the base, but as they are 
at the base only we can easily imagine an old shell which has 
drifted about for years at the sea bottom coming at last mm con- 
tact with the bottle and being involved in a busy mass of tube- 
forming annelids, getting involved in the cementing process, 
and so with them becoming attached. Is it possible the 
- Cardium was dragged there by a hermit crab, then involved in 
the process of cementing by a young colony of serpule, and 
the hermit thereby compelled to quit for fear of bemg buried 
alive in his own habitation ! 

After all this Hmilius is not satisfied. He has been testing 
our observations by experiences of his own in soundings for 
the Atlantic telegraph, and he detects, moreover, a few flaws 
in our reasoning. He says the Cardium is so cemented that he 
cannot understand how it should have become attached during 
the life of the animal. Would it, for instance, he says, be such 
a fool as to remain immoyeable while a colony of tube-forming 
annelids laid their foundations, and fixed him secure for ever 
like a new Prometheus? No; both the Cardium and the 
Buccinum were surely lying untenanted on the sea-bottom 


Submarine Architecture. 340 


when the bottle sank slowly and in a perpendicular position, 
and rested upon them, and from that day to the present hauling 
up of the bottle by the dredge, the bottle never once changed 
its position. It has been proved, says he, that old shells never 
drift about the sea-bottom ; there are no tides or currents there, 
but a profound stillness reigns as in chaos, though not lifeless. 
The deep sea-bottom is a place of eternal calm. Hereat he 
defiantly inverts the bottle again to remind us that there are 
no incrustations there, not even an abrasion of the smooth 
surface to show that after its deposition it ever once shifted 
from its place. The bottle evidently stood upright at the 
bottom, was undisturbed during the whole period of its sub- 
mergence. ‘The shells were already there, empty and decaying, 
in contact with its edge, and the cementing animals wrought 
between the angles of the contiguous surfaces, and soon 
cemented both together. We see no escape from these con- 
clusions. Hmilus is avowedly no naturalist, but he insists on 
logical deductions from all proven facts. We leave it to him 
to wind up the discourse, and he observes— 

What a close analogy does this case afford to the method 
by which Nature appropriates the works of man on terra firma. 
The grass grows upon the rock or on the crumbling marble of 
the temple only after the surface has been prepared by suc- 
cessive colonies of conferve, lichens, liverworts, and mosses. 
These form the foundations. As in the sea sponges and 
lepraliz form a crust, so on the dry land the little liver- 
worts form a stratum of soil which becomes a nidus for higher 
forms, and the humbler flowering plants follow and are suc- 
ceeded by trees and shrubs. The 420 plants found by Dr. 
Deakin among the ruins of the Colosseum have an analogous 
position to the oysters and the serpule on our beautiful marine 
bottle. And to carry the analogy another step, when men’ 
build cities, they apportion to the humblest of their race, the 
miner, excavator, and mason, the task of forming the foundations 
on which noble forms of architecture are to be superimposed 
by skilful hands, and with all the aids of art and science. But in 
man’s works the whole design 1s first prepared, the work of the 
miners and excavators is marked out as no less necessary, and 
as indeed the first essential for the erection of the fluted shaft 
and the capital, and when the city has ceased to be, Nature 
goes over her work in the old way, according to the vaster 
designs of the Great Architect, under whose guidance the 
meanest things perform services which are essential to the 
life of the noblest. 


VOLES WIS ——NO)s \"% B B 


346 Hiffects of Haschisch. 


HFFECTS OF HASCHISCH.* 


“Unprr the name of Haschisch is indicated the intoxicating 
preparations made from a species of hemp which bears the ap- 
pellation of Cannabis Indica. The tops of the plants in flower, 
gathered before the maturity of the seeds, are employed in its 
production, but the details of the process are not known. It is 
prepared in two distinct forms—an extract shaped into slender 
cylinders more or less long, and thin tablets contaiing sugar, 
which have an agreeable and peculiar flavour. From the 
extract an alcoholic tincture is obtained, also pastilles sucrées, 
and several other preparations, in which fatty and aromatic 
substances enter. Sometimes the haschisch is smoked with 
tobacco, or it is mixed with coffee, tea, or other drinks. 

‘Haschisch is remarkable for a special action upon the 
human economy, which must not be confounded with that 
occasioned by alcoholic fluids, or by opium, and the general 
run of narcotics. 

** Being desirous of testing its action on my own person, I 
seized, without hesitation, a favourable opportunity offered by 
one of my friends, who brought from the Hast a certain quantity 
of haschisch under the form of extract and pdte sucrée. I took 
two or three grammes of this paste with great indifference 
and doubt as to the marvellous effects it was alleged to produce. 
It was in the spring of 1854, about nine o’clock in the morn- 
ing, and soon afterwards I repaired to the chemical laboratory of 
the College of France, and set to work as usual. In about a 
quarter of an hour I felt a peculiar movement in the extremities, 
which propagated itself towards the interior of the body. I felt 
as if something entered at the tips of my fingers and moved 
‘progressively, and without mterruption, to my brain, without, 
however, producing the slightest derangement of the mtellec- 
tual faculties, or the faintest impression of pain. I can only 
compare this sensation to that produced by nettles on the skin, 
or that occasioned by a great number of ants moving over the 
body, or that of a gentle titillation of the sole of the foot, or 
other delicate part of the skin. But all these comparisons are 
only approximations, and cannot convey a true idea of the effect 
produced by haschisch during the first pericd of its action. The 
movement I wish to describe has the peculiarity of being pro- 
eressive, without intermittence, and without any pain. 

“Tn this first period of the operation of haschisch I felt that 
IT was in an abnormal state, and was contented. Nevertheless, 
{ desired to continue the work I had begun, but was unable to 
do so, as my hands, affected by a peculiar nervous excitement, 


* Note by M.S. de Luca, Comptes Rendus, 13th October, 1862. 


Liffects of Haschisch. 347 


refused to execute any movements that required delicacy or 
steadiness. I therefore determined to return home, but I had 
scarcely opened the doors of the grand court of the college than 
I beheld the houses as if they had been removed to a distance, 
while the voices that reached me were as weak as if they 
came from a remote place. All distances seemed very great, 
and I felt as if raised from the ground and walking through 
the air, whilst the persons in the streets touched the ground 
with their feet, as if they were my inferiors, and incapable of 
mounting above it as I had done. As I was hastening home 
the distances seemed to grow without end, and I thought I 
should never arrive. In the meantime I reasoned with myself 
and said, ‘This is curious. The action of haschisch augments 
distances, weakens the voice, creates a sense of superiority over 
others, and the person under its influence believes himself hfted 
from the ground and walking in the air” At length I reached 
the house, and at the place where my key was, I found and 
took possession of two letters bearing my address. The 
portress, who saw me return sooner than usual, said to her 
husband, ‘M. Luca’s rooms are not ready;’ and when she 
heard me speak, she exclaimed, ‘ His voice has changed ;’ to 
which I hastened to reply, ‘It is the effect of haschisch.’ I pro- 
ceeded to my lodging, opened the door, entered, and shut it, 
but left the key outside. My first desire was to open the two 
letters and read them, but the nervous movement which I have 
mentioned hindered me, and with all my efforts I only succeeded. 
im passing them between my fingers and turning them about 
for two or three minutes. At last, seized with a supreme 
disdain for vulgar things, [ flung the letters on the ground as 
if unworthy of my thoughts. 

“ A crowd of ideas came into my mind, and grew clear and 
precise; the nervous movement became more sensible, an 
agreeable feeling came over me, and I determined to go to bed, 
having taken off my clothes. I had scarcely got into bed before 
the clothes seemed to remove themselves to a certain distance 
from my body, as a sign of respect; and thus, without contact 
with them, I found myself in an atmosphere of pleasure and 
content. I saw at that moment, to my great satisfaction, all 
the events of my life pass before me; but my ideas changed so 
rapidly that I would not dwell upon a single one. At this time 
I said, ‘If this state could last for ever, the dreams of poets 
would be realized, we should be all content, we should have 
nothing to desire, and we might pass our time in joyful con- 
templation ? The distinctness of my ideas was not diminished 
throughout this period of the action, and my mind sought to 
corroborate them by proofs, and to know them more completely. 
In fact, while I found myself in bed under this influence, I had 


348 Carpenter on the Microscope. 


my doubts, and said, ‘You believe you are at home, and 
perhaps you are at work in the laboratory ;’ but this doubt 
passed off like lhghtning, as a thousand reasons occurred to 
convince me that I was really at home, and nowhere else, for I 
could get out of bed and walk—which I did; I could go back 
to bed—which I did also, having first examined my clothes, 
looked at the two letters on the floor, and noticed that the door 
was shut and the key outside. As soon as 1 got into bed the 
second time the clothes again removed themselves to a distance, 
and the same agreeable atmosphere surrounded me once more. 
“This action lasted about four hours, and towards its close 
ideas succeeded with less rapidity, the distances diminished, 
and the bed-clothes respectfully approached me, the nervous 
movement disappeared, and all things gradually assumed their 
natural aspect, except that my lips were less moist than usual.” 


CARPENTER ON THE MICROSCOPE. 


THE appearance of a third edition of Dr. Carpenter’s well known 
and valuable work* is an important event in the annals of 
microscopic literature, in which it still occupies a foremost 
place. It may be confidently stated that, as a scientific intro- 
duction to the use of the microscope as an instrument of re- 
search, and to the natural history and physiology of a very wide 
range of objects, no work equal to it has ever been produced. 
The present edition, by the introduction of much new matter, 
the revision and correction of many passages written in a less 
advanced stage of knowledge, and numerous additions to the 
illustrations, 1s brought very closely up to the requirements of 
the time. The first portion of The Microscope and its Revela- 
tions, as in former editions, is devoted to an explanation of the 
optical and mechanical arrangements of various kinds of im- 
struments ; but while the great makers, whose productions 
cannot be too highly praised, meet with ample justice, there is 
a deficiency of information concerning the merits of their 
imitators, whose productions, if less perfect, may be obtained at 
a largely diminished cost. ‘The comparative merits of first and 
second class object-glasses is a very important question for the 
student. Ifrich, he would be unwise to grudge the price of 
the finest that are produced ; but if his means are moderate, it 
1S important that he should have some idea of the results 


* The Microscope and its Revelations, by G. B. Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S., 
F.GS., F.L.S., Registrar of the University of London, formerly President of the 
Microscopical Society of London, etc. Third Edition. Illustrated by ten plates, 
and nearly 400 wood engravings. Churchill. 


Carpenter on the Microscope. 349 


afforded by the assemblage of instruments at the late Ex’ibi- 
tion, or by any other means of instituting an extended com- 
parison of the operation of instruments of different kinds. 

The most important addition to the microscope since Dr. 
Carpenter last wrote, is undoubtedly the binocular arrange- 
ment of Mr. Wenham, which marked an enormous advance 
upon the earlier methods adopted by that gentleman, or upon 
those employed in the more complicated and less serviceable 
form adopted by Nachet. At first the new binoculars were the 
subjects of exaggerated praise, and their admirers appeared to 
fancy that no one had ever seen objects in relief without their 
aid. ‘These notions have by this time sobered down, and the 
binocular takes its permanent place as an addition to, not a 
substitute for, monocular patterns. 'T’o some observers its utility 
is much greater than others; those whose eyes are the best 
matched in point of focus and power being the best suited ; 
while other persons—some eminent naturalists amongst them— 
do not find it of the shehtest use. Most people, however, will 
be helped by it for certain objects, and will agree with the 
modified eulogium pronounced by Dr. Carpenter, who observes: 
““ Tt is requisite to bear in mind, that as the special purpose of 
the binocular microscope is to convey to the mind the notion 
of the solid forms of objects, of which some parts approximate 
to the objective more closely than others, the rays proceeding 
from the most projecting parts cannot be so nearly brought to 
the same focus with those from the mediary, as to produce even 
a tolerably distinct image of both at once; and it is moreover 
to be recollected, that when high powers are being employed, 
and especially such as are of large angular aperture, the smallest 
departure from exactitude in the focal adjustment gives indis- 
timetness to the image. It seems to be only with objectives of 
comparatively low power and small angular aperture that images 
most suited for the production of stereoscopic effects will be 
produced; but for certain classes of objects this mode of exhibi- 
tion 1s admirably adapted.” 

Without depreciating the “ binocular,” we may remark that 
a stillgreater boon to science would be the constructionof a micro- 
scope adapted to take in avery large field, so as to facilitate the 
study of marine and fresh-water animals or vegetables in an 
aquarium, or large zoophyte trough. It is extremely difficult 
to determine many interesting pomts of development unless 
the objects can be watched under circumstances that make 
them quite at home ; and although Mr. Warrington’s portable 
microscope can be brought to bear upon any vessel, it has the 
defect of struments intended for minute investigation, and 
the field is not one-third of the diameter that could be advan- 
tageously used. 


350 Carpenter on the Microscope. 


The chapter on “ Errors of Interpretation” is very important 
taken im connection with analagous remarks on the “‘ Nature of 
Surface Marking of Diatomacez.” Dr. Carpenter observes, 
“The most common error is that which is produced by the re- 
versal of lights and shadows resulting from the refractive power 
of the object itself; thus the bi-concavity of the blood disks of 
human (and other mammalia) blood, occasions their centres 
to appear dark when in the focus of the microscope, through 
the dispersion of light which it occasions ; but when they are 
brought a little within the focus by a slight approximation of 
the object-glass, the centres appear brighter than the principal 
part of the disks. ‘The same reversal presents itself im the case 
of the markings of the Diatomaceze ; for these, when the surface 
is exactly in focus, are seen as ight hexagonal spaces, separated 
by dark partitions, and yet when the surface is shghtly beyond 
the focus, the hexagonal area are dark, and the imtervening 
partitions light.” While comeiding with the general reason- 
meg, we would ask whether this passage does not require modi- 
fication ; cannot a hexagonal appearance be produced by ilu- 
mination and focussmg in objects in which it does not really 
exist ? 

Concerning these much disputed surface markings, Dr. 
Carpenter now says, that ‘ There can now be no question as to 
the nature of the comparatively coarse areolation seen m the 
larger forms, such as Isthmia, Triceratium, and Biddulphia ; in 
all of which the structure of the valve can be distinctly seen 
with alow magnifying power and ordinary light. In each of 
these instances we see a number of areole, rounded, oval, or 
hexagonal, with intervening spaces symmetrically disposed. . . . 
That the areolze are really depressions is suggested by the ap- 
pearances presented by the surface when the hght is obliquely 
directed, and it may also be mferred from their aspect when 
viewed by the black ground ilumination, since the areolee are 
then less bright than the intervening spaces.” After adducing 
other reasons, for the ‘‘ depression’? interpretation, the author 
passes to the consideration of the more delicate workings on 
minuter diatoms, and especially on those of the genus Plewro- 
sigma, and he tells us when a P. angulatwm is examined with 
an objective of one-twelfth of an ich focus, and an angular 
aperture of 170°, and a magnifying power of 1200 diameters, 
it presents a hexagonal areolation* somewhat resembling that 
of Tricerstiwm. We suppose other observers will still deny the 
accuracy of this hexagonal appearance, but the majority will 
probably coincide with Mr. Wenham’s present opinion, and 
that now avowed by Dr. Carpenter, that the Plewrosigma areole 
“are minute tubercular elevations.” 

* There is some mistake here in the reference to Plate II. 


Carpenter on the Microscope. 301 


There is another question on which microscopists would 
have been glad of somewhat more information. We allude to 
the practical value of such powers as Messrs. Powell and Lea- 
land’s 1-25th. Dr. Carpenter has only slightly modified the 
expressions previously applied to the 1-16th, that it is “ ques- 
tionable whether anything is really gamed thereby,” a dictum 
that is not confirmed by a subsequent statement that the 
1-25th showed a certain movement in a plant cell not visible with 
other means. ‘This power was likewise advantageously em- 
ployed in the recent researches into the peripheral nerves made 
by Mr. lionel Beale. The use of such high objectives must 
necessarily be very limited, and their employment without great 
judgment would only help to mislead. They may, however, be 
the means of explaining many particulars of extremely minute 
structure, and of elucidating the cause of movements like those 
of diatoms or the closterium, which yet remain a puzzle to be 
resolved. 

Among the important additions to the present issue, we 
notice an account of M. Balbiani’s discoveries on the reproduc- 
tion of Infusoria—the first comprehensive view of which was 
given to the English reader in our own pages; a complete re- 
modelling of the chapter on Diatoms, with explanations of 
the classification recommended by Mr. Ralfs; a collection of 
recently ascertained facts concerning the generation of the 
Volvox globator, showing that it forms no exception to the 
general rule, that bisexual propagation is. a fact that occurs at 
some period of the history of an organized being. Moreover 
the account of the Rhizopoda has been re-written, and that of 
the Foraminifera enlarged and made to contain an exposition 
of the new views which have resulted from the labours of Dr. 
Carpenter, Mr. Parker, and Mr. Rupert Jones. There are also 
other additions of importance, including Mr. Rainey’s remark- 
able discoveries of ‘‘Molecular Coalescence,” of which drawings 
are given. ‘These researches tend to connect purely physical 
with what are called vital processes, and Dr. Carpenter’s re- 
marks upon them will stimulate other inquirers to enter upon 
the path which has been so ably opened before them. Mr. 
Rainey brings about “a slow decomposition of the salts of lime 
contained in gum by the agency of sub-carbonate of potash. 
The result is the formation of spheroidal concretions of carbonate 
of lime, which progressively increase in diameter at the expense 
of an amorphous deposit which at first intervenes between 
them ; two such spherules sometimes coalescing to produce 
dumb-bells, while the coalescence of a large number gives rise 
to a mulberry-like body.” Similar concretionary spherules, 
Dr. Carpenter says, occur in the skin of the shrimp, in imper- 
fect layers of the shell of mollusca, and they appear to form 


302 Carpenter on the Microscope. 


the deposits noticed by Professor Williamson in the scales 
of fishes; and it 1s “probable that by a further study of the 
relations between their structure and that of true bones and 
teeth, the principle of molecular coalescence will be found in 
some degree applicable to the special peculiarities of the latter.” 

Dr. Carpenter retains the opinions he has expressed on 
former occasions as to the distinction that separates the lower 
forms of animal and vegetable life, and considers we are ‘‘justi- 
fied in laying it down as the most ready and certain differential 
character we are acquainted with, between those protophytes 
and protozoa which are apparently most closely related to each 
other in the simplification of their structure, that the former 
(with the exception of the fungi) decompose carbonic acid under 
the influence of light, and acquire a red or green colour from 
the new compounds which they form in the interior ; whilst the 
latter, having no such power, receive animal and vegetable 
organisms, or particles of such, into the interior of their bodies, 
where they extract from them the ready-prepared nutriment 
they are fitted to yield.’ As we mentioned in our last 
number Dr. Wallich supplies some reasons for doubting the 
validity of this distmction as regards the deep sea Rhizopods, 
and the transformation of vegetable matter into the Amceboid 
condition seems to favour the opinion that no strict severance 
between the two kingdoms really exists. We must, however, 
wait before the full significance of the occurrence of vegetable 
Ameebee can be ascertained. Dr. Hicks has not been able to 
give us a complete history of the Amcebz formed from the 
protoplasmic contents of the roots of mosses, and Dr. Carpenter 
think that there is no sufficient evidence to confirm the state- 
ments of Dr. de Bary that the sporules of certam fungi (such 
as the Althalium septicum) feed like Rhizopods, by taking in 
foreign substances, after they have assumed the Amceboid form. 

We have spoken of Dr. Carpenter’s book as an excellent 
introduction to the study of the various branches of microscopic 
investigation, but 1t must not be imagined by those who are unac- 
quainted with the merits of former editions, that 1t bears any 
resemblance to that very unsatisfactory kind of literature which 
is usually described as “ popular science.” It is an admirable 
concentration of substantial learning and profound research, 
which could only have been made by an author whose own in- 
vestigations had extended over an unusual range, and who 
possessed a rare acquaintance with the labours of other distin- 
guished men. More than any book that could be named it will 
assist to form a class of genuine microscopic observers, and no 
intelligent person who can procure an instrument, need ever 
want objects to examine while its pages are at hand to indicate 
treasures that every locality can afford. 


Lassell on an Annular Nebula. S00 


LASSELL ON AN ANNULAR NEBULA. 


In a letter to M. Le Verrier, and by him communicated to 
the French Academy, M. Lassell gives the following interesting 
account :**— 

“On directing my great telescope to the planetary nebula 
situated 20h. 56m., 101° 56’, its structure appeared to me so 
marvellous that I could not help sending you a drawing accom- 
panied with a description. 

“By employing two magnifications of 231 and 285, I saw, 
at first sight, an elliptical nebula of a clear blue, with a slight 
prolongation, or rather a very faint star, towards the extremity 
of its transverse axis. This aspect of the nebula resembled the 
appearance of the planet Saturn, when its ring is seen in a nearly 
full view. By employing still higher powers, magnifying re- 
spectively 760, 1060, and 1480 times, and under the most 
favourable circumstances, I discovered in the interior of the 
nebula, a brilliant elliptical ring, perfectly sharp, and without 
apparent connection with the surrounding nebula. This last 1s 
like a thin veil of vapour, and not confounded with the margin 
of the ring, whose splendour it diminishes very little. The 
nebulous envelope, a little more removed from the extremity of 
the conjugate axis than from the extremity of the transverse 
axis, 1s in reality very fully prolonged, and it is difficult to 
follow its traces amongst the stars that precede and follow it. 
There is a star near its northern border in the prolongation of 
itS conjugate axis. The breadth or thickness of the ring differs 
from that of Saturn in bemg nearly uniform throughout. It 
appears, therefore, that if its form is really elliptical, we must 
see in a direction almost perpendicular to its plane ; while if it 
is actually circular, it is presented to us a little foreshortened. 
A section passing through any portion of the space between 
its mner and outer sides would be circular. In other words, it 
is like a cylinder bent round till both ends meet. 

“¢ At first I was inclined to refer it to the same class as the 
annular nebula of Lyra, chiefly on account of its remarkable 
central star, which was, however, of greater brilliance; and, 
besides this, the resemblance is incomplete, for the ring is much 
more symmetrical, and better defined at its edges. It suggests 
the idea of a compact assemblage of brilliant stars, like the 
milky way. The brightness of the ring is not strictly uniform, 
the south preceding position being slightly more luminous. 
The transverse axis is inclined about 13° to the parallel of de- 
clnation. A series of micrometrical measures of the length 
and breadth of the ellipse gives a mean of 26'°2 for the trans- 


* Comptes Rendus, October 13th, 1862. 


354 Leech-lore. 


verse axis, and of 16’°6 for the conjugate axis.” Mr. Lassell 
proceeds to remark that observations on this nebula are ex- 
tremely difficult, and that it was only when the fine climate of 
Malta afforded him a night of unusual clearness, and permitted 
the employment of a power of 1480, that its details were re- 
vealed. He concludes thus: “I confess I was strongly im- 
pressed with the appearance of this marvel, situated, without 
doubt, at the extreme limit of the regions accessible to our in- 
vestigation, and affording reason to believe that the heavens 
that are invisible to us are peopled with systems more splendid 
than any which we are permitted to contemplate.” 


LEECH-LOR#E. 


BY THE REY. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S. 


Or the four orders which, according to Cuvier and Milne Hd- 
wards, form the extensive division know to naturalists by the 
term Annelida, that of the Suctorie most directly affects man 
either for good or evil. The various species that belong to the 
other three groups, viz., the Dorsibranchiate, the T'ubicole, and 
the Terricole are only for the most part of indirect consequence 
to him, but with the leech, which belongs to the first-named 
group, man is directly concerned, and acknowledges this an- 
nelid either as a benefit or a pest; for while the medicinal 
leech has a strong claim upon our consideration on the grounds 
of the important services which it renders; there are others, 
such as the land-leech of Ceylon, and the horse-leech of Hurope, 
which are often the cause of serious mischief. 

Under the term leech is generally understood the animal of 
that name which is used in medicine, or rather, we should say, 
the two or three varieties thus employed; but the word is far 
more inclusive, and applies to other genera besides that to which 
the medicinal leech belongs. 

Who was the discoverer of the useful art of bleeding by 
leeches? Themison, the founder of the ancient medical sect 
of the Methodici, and an eminent physician of Laodicea, in 
Syria (B.c. circ. 100), has the credit of being the first to make 
use of leeches.* The ancient Hebrews, and Orientals generally, 
do not appear to have been acquainted with the art, and even 
at this day the medicinal use of this annelid is unknown to the 
people of Syria; but that the art was practised by the later 
Greeks and Romans there is abundant evidence to show. We 
content ourselves, however, with one quotation from Oppian, 

* Cel, Aurel. De Morb. Chron, i. 1, p. 286. 


Leech-love. 300 


who gives a very graphic description of the physician or sur- 
geon applying leeches to an inflamed wound, the substance of 
which may be translated as follows :— 
“ As when the surgeon, prompt and skilful in his art 

Has fixed a leech on some affected part, 

A leech, the slimy offspring of the pond, 

That sucks the black blood from each angry wound ; 

Nor stops, till satiated with the gore, 

It drops from off the skin, nor thirsts for more, 

But coils upon itself.” * 


There are two kinds of leeches generally employed in me- 
dicine, viz. the Hirudo medicinalis, the gray leech, and the 
HZ. officinalis, or the green leech. Another kind less used, as 
it is considered to be of an inferior quality, is the trout leech 
(Hirudo troctine, Johns.), so called from the orange-coloured 
spots with which its body is marked. These three kinds may 
be taken as affording certain typical characters, but there are 
numerous varieties which offer slight differences in colour, 
which it is supposed may be the result merely of the nature of 
their food, or of the water which they inhabit. Leeches are 
imported to this country from Spain, the south of France, 
Hungary, Algeria, etc. Many millions are annually brought to 
the dealers, who are sometimes guilty of fraud in the sale of 
them. M. Moquin-Tandon tells us that the merchants divide 
the leeches into small, middle-sized, and large. The small are 
called “threads,” those just born “sprouts,” the very large 
one “cows;’’ he adds that the dealers often gorge the leeches 
before selling them, with blood from the slaughter-house, and 
thus convert the small ones mto middle-size, etc. The medi- 
cinal leech was once common enough in the lakes and pools 
of the north of England, though it is very rarely to be met 
with now in those parts. In Wordsworth’s sonnet, Resolution 
and Independence, we are introduced to an old leech-gatherer 
in the following lines :— 

“ He with a smile did then his words repeat, 
And said that gathering leeches farand wide 
He travelied ; stirring thus about his feet 
The waters of the pool where they abide. 
Once I could meet with them on every side. 


But they have dwindled long by slow decay ; 
Yet still I persevere and find them where I may.” 


Wordsworth’s sonnet was written in 1807; when we consider 


* “Gs D'bray intip moAuLhXavos, EAKos apvocwy 
bibareov, TH TOAALY avdpotoy EvdobEy dupe. 
evveweTat Siepds Te yovds Kvavdxpou Aiuyns 
EpTeTa TEpomevowo KaTa& Xpods eaThpike 
Salvucba péray Gipa TH TavTina yupwldyTa 
KupTouTat, kal AVOpov epeAKeTa, dvd avinaty, 
e.rdney GigmoBaph (wpdy morby av épicayvTa 
€k Xpoos auToKvALoTAa Téon.” —Hal. ii. 599. 


306 Leech-lore. 


the immense numbers used in therapeutics, we shall not be sur- 
prised that native leeches have now become very scarce, and 
there 1s little doubt that the enormous demand for them, not 
only in England but on the Continent, would in time completely 
exhaust the natural supply, were it not that art here steps in and 
stops the drain. Hirudiniculture, M. Moquin-Tandon informs 
us, 1S now a most important branch of commerce, particularly 
in the Gironde and other districts of the southern departments. 
Large artificial marshes are formed, and the water is kept at a 
uniform level; a supply of clay and peat is made at the bottom 
and on the sides, and aquatic plants are provided for the two in- 
dispensable requisites of oxygenating the water, and of afford- 
ing facilities for the leeches to free themselves of mucus, without 
which necessary cleansing they cannot long be kept in perfect 
health. 

Almost every one is familiar with the little triradiate shaped 
mark left by the leech on the skin. This is effected by the 
three teeth of the animal thus deposited in its jaws ; each tooth 
is provided with two sharp saw-like edges, worked by powerful 
muscles. 

The leech produces two or three fibrous-coated cocoons, 
in which are seen a number of vitelli; this takes place not 
in deep water, but in moist holes or drains, at the spring of the 
year. The whole process is doubtless a most interesting spec- 
tacle to witness, and though we have not ourselves been spec- 
tators of the modus parturiendi in the genus Hirudo, we have 
been fortunate enough to observe it in the case of a closely 
alhed genus, Nephelis, a most common leech, in every brook 
and pool in this country. Every one who has turned over 
stones and weeds, and especially the broad leaves of Pota- 
mogeton natans, Persicaria, Sparganium, etc., must have 
observed some oval-shaped, olive-coloured bodies, about one- 
third of an inch long and two lines broad. You find them in 
every brook and pond in great multitudes all through the sum- 
mer, fixed to stones and leaves, and within the stems of Spar- 
ganvum and other aquatic plants. What are these? Ifyou are 
puzzled, you may have satisfaction in learning that so was the 
great Linneus! At first he took these capsules to be a species 
of insect, to which he gave the name of coccus aquaticus. It is 
recorded of the great Swede, that when he discovered the true 
nature of these capsules, which for a time had so much puzzled 
him, he exclaimed, “ Vidi et obstupwi.”  Linneus, however, 
does not appear ever to have witnessed Nephelis octoculata in the 
act of producing and depositing the capsule. It is to the late 
Dr. Rawlins Johnson, of Bristol, to whom science is indebted 
for having been the first to record this extremely interesting 
and curious observation. (See Philosophical Transactions for 


Leech-lore. Od. 


1817.) As we have witnessed this process we shall briefly 
describe it. , 

Some few years ago, in the month of July, we had alive in 
a glass vessel three or four specimens of this leech (it is the 
only British species of Nephelis). A few days after their cap- 
ture we observed that one individual which had attached him- 
self and herself—for the leeches combine both sexes in one 
person—to the sides of the glass, appeared very restive and 
uncomfortable, twisting and turning about in every direction ; 
by and by a constriction was observed to take place on either 
side of the orifice from which the eggs proceed, the space 
between these two constrictions being much bulged out; around 
the circumference of this portion a slimy sloughing of the skin 
took place, while at the same time a number of mmute globular 
bodies were emitted from the orifice, and inclosed within this 
mucus-like formation. Then the animal, with hinder sucker 
firmly affixed, drew back the front part of the body, and 
slipped its head out of the jelly-hke mass; and now a still 
more curious scene presented itself. The leech turned round, 
and with its mouth moulded this viscid secretion into that oval 
form which the cocoon is destined to assume, and fixed it firmly 
to the sides of the glass, leaving it for a moment, and then 
returning to the work. ‘This continued for the space of two or 
three minutes, when the leech left the cocoon with its inclosed 
vitelli to be matured into young specimens of Nephelis in due 
time by the surrounding water. 

The Monographie dela Famille des Hirudinees, by M. Moquin- 
Tandon, is a work of great merit, and contains a vast amount 
of information on every department of leech-lore, useful alike 
to the naturalist and the doctor. It is accompanied with an 
atlas of several plates, many of which are coloured, and contain, 
for the most part, faithful representatives of the animals; their 
structure, mode of increase, the diseases to which the medicinal 
leeches are liable, their commercial value, particulars necessary 
to observe in their application, the descriptive characteristics of 
the species of the various genera which comprise this interesting 
group of Annelida are all carefully discussed. 

The species or varieties of the medical leech have a wide 
geographical range, being found in nearly all parts of the 
world, in Hurope, in different parts of Africa, in Hast and West 
Asia, in North and South America, and in the Indian Archipelago, 
in hot countries and in cold, in lowlands and high ground; a 
fact which furnishes evidence, when considered in addition to 
that which results from its structure and natural habitats, of 
the leech being an animal especially designed to serve to the 
good of mankind. “On contemplating,” says Rymer Jones,* 

* The General Structure of the Animal Kingdom, p. 252 (1155). 


358 Teech-lore. 


“the singular dental apparatus found in the medicinal leech, 
and considering the nature of the food upon which it usually 
lives, it is difficult to avoid arriving at the conclusion that such 
a structure is rather a provision intended to render these 
creatures subservient to the alleviation of human suffering than 
necessary to supply the wants of the animals themselves. In 
the streams and ponds which they usually dwell, any oppor- 
tunity of meeting with a supply of the blood of warm-blooded 
vertebrata must be of rare occurrence, so that comparatively 
few are ever enabled to indulge the instinct that prompts them 
to gorge themselves so voraciously when allowed to obtain it. 
Neither does it appear that the blood which they swallow with 
so much avidity is a material properly suited to afford them 
nourishment ; for although it is certainly true that it will 
remain for a considerable time in its stomach without becoming 
putrid, yet it is well known that most frequently the death of 
the leech is caused by such inordinate repletion, provided the 
greater portion of what is taken into the body is not speedily 
regurgitated through the mouth.” 

The enormous consumption of leeches may well convince us 
of their general value. M. Moquin-Tandon, in, 1846, estimated 
the annual demand in France to be from twenty to thirty million. 
Paris requiring three millions every year. It would be difficult to 
name any other creature so low in the scale of creation that 
possesses such high commercial importance. The prices paid 
for leeches are subject to variation. In 1806 they were worth 
at Paris from twelve to fifteen francs per thousand; in 1815 
from thirty to thirty-six francs; in 1821, during the winter, 
they were worth from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and 
eighty francs per thousand. M. H. Cloquet affirms that in 
America and in India the price ofa single leech has been known 
to be as high as three or five francs and even a guinea. It has 
alréady been stated that dealers frequently gorge the leeches; 
on this Dr. Christison remarks: “The gorging of leeches is a 
more common fraud than the substitution of spurious species ; 
they are known by being less velvety in their coat, less flat 
when pressed, and. by presenting a little tumour when squeezed 
between the fingers from the head to the tail. Leeches which 
have been used are often sold for unused or ‘ virgin’ leeches. 
These are best known by putting them on a white cloth, and 
dusting their fore part with finely-powdered salt. In thirty 
seconds a little blood will be emitted, but not a particle if the 
leech be quite fresh.” 

Leeches are caught in various ways. People wade into the 
water inhabited by these worms, and the leeches clinging to 
their naked legs, are thus picked off. They are taken by the 
hand or in nets. Women and children are employed in their 


Leech-lore. 359 


capture with great success. Sometimes portions of the bodies 
of animals are thrown into the water, and taken out after some 
hours with the adherent leeches; they are scooped out with 
ladles when the weather is rough, at which time they sink to 
the bottom, and hide in the mud. At Bonfarick, leeches are 
taken in great numbers by means of a wooden box, which is 
pierced on every side with a number of small openings suffi- 
ciently large to allow them to enter, but which are narrowed in 
the interior; this box is filled with moss and aquatic plants, and 
then, bemg attached by a cord, is thrown into the pond; the 
leeches collect in the plants. The sprmg is the season when 
the most leeches are taken, but the time varies according to 
climate. To prevent the complete exhaustion, the cocoons 
which contain the ova are carefully placed at the proper time in 
the reservoirs. 

Leeches have enemies, and form no exception to the general 
law in the animal kingdom; various web-footed birds devour 
them, and herons, moles, shrew-mice, water-rats, and mole- 
erickets are also said to be their destroyers. It is related by 
Puymaurin that a certain dealer who had made 30,000 francs in 
four years by the sale of leeches, endeavoured to increase his 
number in a small pond, and when they amounted to about 
200,000, a flock of wild ducks came, and in five hours destroyed 
them all. Besides these enemies above-mentioned, some kinds 
of fish, the larvee of various aquatic insects, and even other kinds 
of leeches, such as Aulastoma and Trocheta, occasionally prey 
upon Hirudo medicinalis. 

It has long been a subject of belief with some persons that 
leeches are so susceptible of atmospheric changes that they may 
be employed as useful barometers.* 

A writer in Hone’s Hvery Day Book (i. 491) mentions the 
case of a gentleman who for several years kept a leech in a 
phial of water for the purpose of a weather-glass. If the 
weather was fine and calm, the leech lay motionless at the 
bottom of the vessel, and rolled together ina spiral form; if it 
rained, it crept up to the top of the glass; if wind was about to 
rise, “the poor prisoner galloped through its limpid habitation 
with amazing swiftness ;” if a storm was at hand, the leech 
crawled up the glass and lodged out of the water, and “ dis- 
covered great uneasiness in violent throes and convulsions.” — 

On this subject M. Moquin-Tandon observes (213) that “on 
the eve of high wind, the leeches wander about their habitation 
with a surprising quickness ; if the weather is cloudy they hide 
themselves in the mud; on the approach of storms they mount 
to the surface of the water, and fishermen profit by this circum- 
stance to take them. ‘These different movements are very far 


* See Inquire Within upon Hverything, No. 2180. 


360 Leech-lore. 


from being constant; if one observes a great quantity of leeches 
placed in a vessel, one would always perceive a number of these 
annelids remaining motionless at the bottom of the reservoir, 
and others rising to the surface of the water. However, a curé 
in the neighbourhood of Tours, announced in the public papers 
of 1774, that one could know every morning, by means of 
leeches, the weather of the next day. Briolét, Leroi, Toudouze 
and Valmont de Bomare, repeated these experiments and ob- 
tained no satisfactory results; Vitet was not more fortunate, 
and it has been the same with every one who has tried the 
employment of these pretended animal barometers. A modern 
author has therefore gone much too far when he has asserted 
that leeches replace with advantage the tube of Toricelli, and 
the opinion of the poet Cowper (as quoted by Johnson) is also 
exaggerated when he proclaims the instinct of leeches to be 
preferable to all the barometers in the world. It appears, 
however, that in Champagne, on the borders of the Lorraine, 
these clumsy instruments (ces instruments grossiers) had become 
common; a decanter, a small quantity of water, and five or six 
leeches being all that was necessary. Persons even carried their 
confidence in these indicators of the weather to the poimt of 
placing in the bottles a graduated wooden scale for the pur- 
pose of marking the different degrees of elevation to which the 
leeches attained. Charles Bonnet, who has perceived nothing 
regular or harmonious between the movements of the leeches 
and the variations of the atmosphere, has suspected that if these 
animals are not good barometers, they might serve as very sen- 
sitive thermometers; the assertion of the naturalist of Genoa 
is scarcely worthy of more serious consideration than the dis- 
covery of the cwré of Tours.”” That leeches are, to some extent, 
affected by changes in the weather is a fact which we have 
witnessed ourselves, and where no other barometer can be had 
they can be employed in this respect by those who are not 
scrupulous about particulars or any amount of accuracy. 

We all know how what is termed a mania in some parti- 
cular subject breaks out from time to time, possessing the minds 
of multitudes with some epidemic. We all remember the 
Cochin China mania, the aquarium mania, for instance, but 
what will the fair sex say to the fact that m 1824 there existed 
in France a leech mania! The most enthusiastic admirer of 
Cochins, or of sea anemones, would never have thought of car- 
rying her admiration for her pets so high as to wear on her 
dress representatives of these animals; but we learn from Fée 
that there might have been seen at that period elegant ladies 
wearing dresses @ la Broussais, on the trimming of which were 
mitations of leeches! M. Broussais was a physician, no doubt 
the great patron of leeches, as Mr. Gosse is of sea-anemones. 


Leechlore. 361 


The following extract from M. Moquin-Tandon’s work, Hle- 
ments of Medical Zoology,* may be read with advantage by 
those imterested in checking the threatening scarcity of an 
animal whose preservation is of so much importance to all 
classes of society :—‘‘ M. Vayson has recently suggested a small 
domestic marsh (a vaysonier) which will be exceedingly useful 
to the pharmaceutist, and to persons who are desirous of rais- 
ing leeches onasmallscale. ‘This apparatus consists of a common 
earthen vessel having the form ofa truncated cone reversed. The 
lower part is perforated by a number of holes, but not so large 
as to allow of the leeches passing through them ; the vessel is 
then filled with peat earth, and a number of leeches are placed 
upon it which embed themselves in the earth; the upper open- 
ing of the vessel is then covered up with a piece of coarse 
canvas. When it is desired to send the leeches to a distance, 
the earth is made as damp as possible, and the vessel is packed 
in a box or wicker basket. When it is only wanted to pre- 
serve the animals, the lower part of the vessel is placed in water 
to the depth of about four inches, and the creatures are left to 
themselves. In consequence of the infiltration, the lower parts 
of the peat are soon saturated with water, while the upper por- 
tion is almost dry. The leeches know perfectly well how to 
choose between these two extremes the layer which is best 
adapted for them, and form in it galleries in which they live, 
grow, and produce their cocoons. The vaysonier will answer 
both for the preservation, the conveyance, and reproduction of 
leeches.” 

There are interesting particulars relating to many other 
genera of the leech family, such as the horse-leech, the land- 
leech of Ceylon, the incubating leech (Glossiphonia), but space 
forbids further remarks. 


* Translated and Edited by R. T. Hulme. London. 1861. 


VOL. 11.—WNO. V. Cc c¢c 


362: The Structure and Habits of Physalia. 


THE STRUCTURE AND HABITS OF PHYSALIA. 
BY G. C. WALLICH, M.D., F-L.S., F.G.8. 


Tue last number of the InruLuEctuaL OBSERVER contained a 
summary of the researches of the older writers on Physalia, 
from the time of Alexander when it was first noticed by 
Aristotle as occurrmg in the Mediterranean, to the year 1848, 
in which we find it described by M. Lesson in his Histoire 
Naturelle des Acalephes. But, although the more obvious por- 
tions of the Physalian structure had already been described 
at the date of the last-named memoir, it remained for our dis- 
tinguished countryman Professor Huxley, to advance our pre- 
vious knowledge of the Oceanic Hydrozoa generally, and to 
correct many of those erroneous views regarding their organiza- 
tion and morphological relations which were due to the state- 
ments of De Blamyille, Lesson, and others. 

It is the object of the present paper to adduce what further 
information has thus been rendered available, and, at the same 
time, to put the reader in possession of some apparently novel 
facts bearing on the history of Physalia which have fallen under 
the writer’s immediate observation. 

Professor Huxley’s first memoir on Physalia was forwarded 
by him in 1847, from the Australian Seas, to the Linnean 
Society; the more detailed account appearing, however, in his 
admirable work on The Oceanic Hydrozoa, constituting the 
volume published by the Ray Society for the year 1858. 

We find it there stated that “the body of every hydrozoon 
is essentially a sac, composed of two membranes,” an external 
and an internal, which have respectively been called the ‘ Hcto- 
derm” and “Hndoderm.”* This sac contains the nutritive fluid 
which performs the functions of the blood in the higher animals, 
and is circulated by means of cilia which generally invest the 
inner as well as the outer membrane and, aided by the mus- 
cular contractility of the body, constitute the only circulatory 
and respiratory mechanism in the organisms under notice. 
The two membranes may readily be traced in every part of 
the structure. In the large bladder (which, by the way, closely 
resembles the swimming bladder of a medium sized haddock in 
dimension and general outline) they form an outer sac, or 
“pneumatophore” as it is technically termed, within which 
the true air-chamber, or ‘“ pneumatocyst,’ is enclosed; the 
latter being in reality a secondary introverted sac, having the 
same structure in its walls, and communicating with the outer 
world by a minute contractile orifice at the point at which the 


* By Professor Allman. 


The Structure and Habits of Physalia. 369 


inflexion of the pneumatophore or outer sac takes place. This 
point corresponds with the apex of the more elongated ex- 
tremity of the pneumatophore. It will thus be seen that there 
1s nO communication between the cavity of the pneumatocyst 
and the general cavity of the organism ; but, on the other hand, 
that a free communication does exist between the general, or 
“somatic” cavity as it is called, and the space existing be- 
tween the walls of the pneumatocyst and pneumatophore. 

According to Hichwald* and Von Olfers,+ the crest is 
formed of a series of vertical czecal folds of the pneumatocyst, 
invested exteriorly, in common with the rest of that body, by 
the two membranes of the pneumatophore. It is extremely 
doubtful whether the Physalidze possess the power of expelling 
the air from the air-chamber as asserted by some writers. The 
only reliable evidence of this process is adduced by Hsch- 
scholtz,{ who describes having seen the air voluntarily expelled 
from a young specimen of Physalia only five lines in length, so 
that it immediately sank to the bottom of the glass vessel in 
which it was placed for observation. In the nearly-allied families 
of Rhizophoridze and Physophoridee, in which the pneumatocyst 
consists only of a minute spherical or pyriform vesicle, I have 
repeatedly seen the creatures suddenly sink to the bottom of 
the glass on bemg uritated, but without any appearance of 
collapse of the air-cell. In the young Physalidee the character 
of the air-cell (“‘pneumatocyst”’) is identical with that of the 
adult Physophora and Rhizophora, but no amount of irritation 
ever caused the specimens to contract the air-cell or sink, 
although their polypites and tentacles exhibited sensibility to 
the slightest touch, or even vibration of the glass, by becom- 
ing instantly coiled up close to the body. 

Durmg the long-continued calms at the equator, extending 
sometimes over several days, when the surface of the sea is 
literally as smooth as a mirror and as pellucid as crystal, I 
have had ample opportunity of watching Physalia, and have 
im no instance observed the float collapse, or the creature sink 
beneath the surface. Under the above conditions it becomes 
manifest that the creature is wholly devoid of power to move 
to and fro; the individuals remaining, as it were, fixed in the 
Same spot, and evincing no signs of vitality beyond a partial 
collapse of the crest, occasional abrupt changes in the direction 
of the axis of the pneumatophore after the fashion recorded by 
M. de Quatrefages$ and Professor Huxley ((oc. cit), a gentle dip 
over on one side—probably with a view to moisten the surface 


* Mem. de l Acad. Imp. des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, 1824. 

+ Abhandlungen de Kon. Akad. de Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1831. 
t System du Acalephen, 1829. 

§ Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1853. 


364 The Structure and Habits of Physalia. 


which must become more or less parched by the fierce rays of 
the tropical sun,—or a few lazy oscillations m answer to the 
never-ceasing swell of the ocean. These are the only move- 
ments which present themselves during calms, but a far more 
remarkable phenomenon has repeatedly been noticed by me in 
moderate weather when the ship is passing along at a speed 
of not more than three or four knots an hour, and its im- 
petus is sufficient to transmit delicate undulations for some 
distance along the surface of the water, although there is 
not sufficient wave-action to interrupt observation. Under 
these circumstances, each Physalia, as it comes abreast of the 
ship, even when at a distance of from thirty to sixty yards, 
gently inclines its pneumatophore and crest to one side so as 
to rest laterally on the water, and only regains its original 
posture when the ship has advanced far enough to prevent the 
transmission of the undulations. That the sensibility to the 
mechanical disturbance thus produced at the surface of the sea 
must be intensely acute is evident, inasmuch as the effect is 
visible far beyond the range of any surface disturbance obsery- 
able by the eye. Hence it would seem to be aroused, not by 
the ordinary wave-action by which the creature happens to be 
surrounded, but by the subtle abnormal character imparted to 
that action by the passage of the ship. It is hardly necessary 
to state that, smce no nervous system can be detected in the 
Physalide, there are, at present, no data even for speculation 
on the physiological aspect of this highly curious phenomenon ; 
and it must be obvious that any attempt to account for it on the 
supposition that the acts in question are the result of direct 
mechanical irritation, is simply substituting one unexplained 
fact for another. At present, therefore, I have only to record 
the act of the “ Portuguese man-of-war” as one of very fre- 
quent cccurrence, leaving it to more imaginative minds to trace 
back the existing mode of salutation between vessels at sea 
designated ‘ dipping the colours,” to this primeeval source. 
According to my own experience, the Physalide never sink 
below the surface as has been asserted, but merely become 
lost to sight in the wave-disturbance when the weather is 
stormy ; their peculiar colour and bubble-like aspect causing 
them to be undistinguishable from the element by which they 
are surrounded when at any distance from the observer’s eye. 
This view derives confirmation, moreover, from the fact that 
they are frequently entrapped by the towing-net when not a 
single specimen can be seen, owing to the reason assigned. 
The inclination to one side and re-erection of the pneuma- 
tophore, to which reference has been made, is slowly performed, 
(each operation occupying from three to five seconds) and would 
seem to be effected by the contraction of the muscular wall on 


The Structure and Habits of Physalia. 360 


the side towards which the inclination takes place. Besides this, 
the creature has the power of raising up, into a nearly vertical 
position at times, the free extremity of the pneumatophore. 
Even when taken out of the water, and placed on any hard 
surface, this portion of the creature continues to move, thus 
indicating that the act is due to muscular contractibility of the 
walls of the air-chamber, and not to the mere change of axis, 
alluded to by M. de Quatrefages, which is due to the sudden 
contraction of the tentacular appendages now about to be 
described. 

On the inferior surface of Physalia there exists what appears, 
at first sight, to be only a confused mass of tentacular and 
suctorial organs. ‘This mass consists of a duplicature of the 
general substance of the body, termed the cenosarc by Pro- 
fessor Huxley, from which three kinds of organs are given off, 
namely, the ‘‘ Polypites,” the ‘‘ Tentacles,’ and the ‘‘ Hydro- 
cysts.” The first are variable in number and size, and, accord- 
ing to the author just named, constitute the “ principal organs 
of alimentation.” In outline they are somewhat pyriform or 
flask-shaped, and during the life of the creature are in con- 
tinual motion; the broad open discoidal end being that which 
is dependent, whilst the short pedunculate extremity is that 
by which they are attached to, and communicate with, the cavity 
of the ceenosarc. Although these organs serve the purpose of 
stomachs, they also possess the prehensile power imputed to 
them, as may readily be seen in specimens placed in confine- 
ment. The interior of the polypite is furnished with villous 
projections, by means of which digestion and absorption are 
said to be effected, and the nutritive products conveyed into 
the general cavity of the body. ‘he hydrocysts, which differ 
im no aspect from the polypites, save in being completely closed 
externally, have been regarded by Professor Huxley as “ young 
stomachs.” 

The tentacles, in like manner with the polypites, are vari- 
able in number and length, one being, however, generally much 
longer than the rest. Hach one is furnished at its point 
of attachment with a jelly-bag-shaped sac, the mouth of 
which communicates with the general cavity, and, along its 
upper half, with that tentacle to the side of which it is adherent. 
The tentacles in their contracted state are only a few inches in 
length, whilst, in their extended condition, they often attain a 
length of from four to six feet. They are formed of longi- 
tudinal highly contractible fibres, each of which averages from 
ssooth to 7,1, ,th ofan inch in diameter; the united fibres, when 
extended, constituting a flattened band somewhat thicker on one 
side than on the other, along which are attached at intervals, 
crescentic masses composed almost wholly of thread capsules. 


366 The Structure and Habits of Physalia. 


These masses do not embrace the entire circumference of the 
band, but only three sides as it were ; ‘the fourth being left free 
along its whole length. It isin the thread capsules that the pecu- 
liarly acute stinging power of the Physalidze resides; although, 
as yet, both the chemical composition and the mode of secre- 
tion of the poisonous fluid with which the threads are embued, 
is altogether unknown. It is almost certain, however, that the 
extension and contraction of the tentacles is attributable to its 
own muscular structure, and not to the injection of the poison- 
ous fluid supposed by Lesson and others to be a secretion of 
the basal saccular appendage already referred to. 

The extensile quality of the tentacle is very remarkable. 
Thus I have repeatedly succeeded in winding it on a card by 
merely placing the animal on a board during the operation, and 
reeling off the thread, which, by this means, is reduced in 
thickness to that of fine silk, and may be continuously wound 
until it attams a length of eight or ten yards. This filament, 
when dried in the sun, will keep for any length of time, and 
forms a beautiful object for the microscope; the fibrillee of the 
muscular band and the crescentic bundles of thread-cells 
being admirably seen, whilst their original colour is in nowise 
destroyed. 

My endeavours to preserve the pneumatophore by drying 
in the sun, were invariably unsuccessful for, although it re- 
mained distended and its upper and lateral portions acquired 
the tough consistence of a dry membrane, the setting in of de- 
composition along the inferior fleshy portion always ended in 
its rupture. Small specimens of the allied family of Velella, 
however, which were preserved on glass slides by a similar 
process of drying, in 1857, are still in my possession, together 
with the delicate tentacles of Physalia just alluded to. 

Although there cannot be a doubt that nutritive organisms, 
probably consisting of minute Hntomostraca, Infusoria, or 
Rhizopoda, are seed after having been paralysed by the urti- 
cating organs of the tentacles and polypites (for these bodies 
also occur in the latter appendage), there is, I think, good 
reason to suspect that Mr. Bennett, who describes the process 
of fish capture by a Physalia, must have been misled as to the 
cause and effect of what he witnessed, for the following reasons : 
In a great number of cases the Physalia is accompanied by one 
or more small fishes, precisely in the same manner that the 
pilot-fish accompanies the shark. These fishes swim round 
and round and through the depending tentacles without incon- 
venience, and their association with Physalia is undoubtedly 
one of choice, being in all likelihood due to the quest of some 
kind of food which is attracted towards it, or furnished through 
its excretions. I have so repeatedly witnessed this association, 


The Structure and Habits of Physalia. 367 


and captured both Physalia and fish in the small hoop casting-net 
T was in the habit of using, that I can confidently state there 
is no hostility between them under ordinary circumstances, 
and that the mere contact of the fish with the tentacles of the 
former does not result in any observable inconvenience to either 
animal. The fish (according to Dr. Gunther, who very kindly 
examined my sketch and favoured me with his opinion) is proba- 
bly either a young form of one of the Scombride, or, if mature, a 
member of some unknown genus. It is curious, however, that the 
specimens captured by me over a wide area of the Atlantic, 
invariably belonged to the same species, and were, as nearly as 
possible, of one size; that is to say, from two to three inches 
im length; the colour on the back being a deep blue, identical 
with that of the cenosarc and body of the polypites of 
Physalia. Nor was this fish the only attendant on it; for, 
crawling about within the mass of polypites and tentacles, I as 
often found several Isopod crustaceans, from a quarter to 
three-quarters of an inch in length, evidently parasitic in this 
position. The same species was also observed by me frequently 
on the float of Ianthina, and on floating epiphytic Lepadide. 
Here, again, 1t is clear that the urticating organs are innocuous, 
inasmuch as partially devoured or dead specimens were never 
met with. 

Lastly, I have not observed the marked iridescent quality 
which has been stated to accompany the brilhant tints of 
the Physalide. The colours themselves are extremely rich, 
the contrast afforded by the roseate pink of the upper margin 
of the crest, and the graduated tints of blue, commencing with 
the faintest opalescence on the upper surface of the pneuma- 
tophore, to the deep and almost full-toned indigo of the 
cznosare and appendages, being very striking. Intermixed 
with these colours are the greenish streaks which mark the out- 
lines of the ceecal chambers of the crest, and the root-like con- 
tinuations of the velvety dark-coloured mass beneath. The 
minute mammiliform protuberance at one extremity of the 
pneumatophore is also of bluish green, whilst the walls of the 
air cavity itself, although almost colourless, reflect the images 
and tints of passing objects in the same manner as a soap- 
bubble, but without any greater amount of iridescence than is 
perceptible in ligament. 

Of the mode of development of the embryo and of the air- 
chamber in the Physophoride generally, nothing is at present 
known ; the young Physalia having only been seen when already 
so far advanced in growth as to constitute a nearly perfect, 
though comparatively minute, individual. In like manner we 
have still much to learn regarding the true basis of specific dis- 
tinction in this class of organisms; the older authors having 


368 Professor Lamont’s New Theory of Atmospheric Vapour. 


adopted distinctions which now-a-days would hardly be admis- 
sible as indicative of varieties. 

These, then, are the more prominent characters of this 
remarkable and beautiful genus of Hydrozoa. They have been 
given somewhat in detail, with a view to incite “those who go 
down into the sea in ships’ to extend our knowledge; and to 
prove that, at all times and under nearly all circumstances, the 
voyager may find ample food for the mind, and a far from 
exhaustible field for the instruction of his fellows. 


PROFESSOR LAMONT’S NEW THEORY OF ATMOS- 
PHERIC VAPOUR. 


BY ALEXANDER 8. HERSCHEL, B.A. 


THE experiments of Dr. Dalton on the pressure of vapour 
rising from the surface of water at different temperatures, in 
free space and in space enclosing air, led to conclusions which 
have since been received by the compilers of meteorological 
tables, but which are questioned by M. Lamont, and shown by 
his experiments to be in some degree fallacious. The vapour of 
boiling water, or of water at 100° centigrade, is familiarly known 
by the vibrations of the lid of a kettle, and by the formation of 
bubbles upon the surface of the heated water, to have the 
pressure of the incumbent atmosphere. The bubbles which 
rise to the surface of water boiling in an open vessel enclose 
within their pellicle a vapour whose tension or elastic force is 
exactly equal to that of the equally heated air which surrounds 
their envelope, and burst so soon as the quantity enclosed 
exceeds a capacity proportioned to the thickness of the film. 
The experiments of Dalton proved that the vapour so enclosed 
was lighter than the air surrounding, in very nearly the propor- 
tion of 2 to 8. It follows, by Mariotte’s law of equable expan- 
sion of gases or vapours by heat, that such vapour and such 
air exposed to any superior equal temperature, will have to 
each other the same proportion, in density, of 2 to 3; but a 
further deduction from the experiments of Dalton is this, that 
water boiled in a partially exhausted receiver of air, will give 
rise to bubbles which enclose a vapour haying equally a pro- 
portion in density of 2 to 3 to the adjacent air. In short, the 
vapour of water and common air, wherever these subsist at a 
common temperature and pressure, are always in the proportion 
in density of 2 to 38 one to the other. We here consider the 
case of water boiling in air. The pressure of the mcumbent. 
air being in this case the exact measure of the elastic force or 


Professor Lamont’s New Theory of Atmospheric Vapour. 369 


tension of the vapour emitted by the water at boiling tem- 
perature, a table is readily constructed to exhibit the vapour 
tension of water of given temperature. Conceive a globe, com- 
pletely exhausted of air, to contain a quantity of water, not 
too small, and to be raised to a certain temperature in the open 
air; this globe will have a tendency to explode or to collapse, 
according as the temperature is above or below 100° centigrade. 
Ifthe atmospheric pressure about the globe be only one half of the 
ordinary pressure of the atmosphere at the sea level (as, for 
instance, on the summit of Mont Blanc), the globe will have 
similar tendencies according as its temperature is above or 
below 82° centigrade. And so for higher and lower pressures 
of the atmosphere without, there will be required higher or 
lower temperatures of the water globe to equilibrate from 
within the pressure from without. Such atable, expressing the 
pressure of pure vapour arising from water of given tempera- 
ture, has been constructed with extreme accuracy by Mr. Reg- 
nault; and it results, that by exceedingly rapid methods of 
exhaustion, water may be made to freeze in the very act of 
boiling, ice or snow bemg forms of water which do not in the 
least interrupt the regular march of the numbers of the table. 

Conceive again a sealed globe to enclose perfectly dry air of 
a given temperature and pressure, and likewise a vessel freely 
dilatable, including water in sufficient quantity. If the tem- 
perature of the globe be high, and the pressure of the air within 
it be small, the water so included will boil, and the temperature 
being exactly maintained, the vessel will enlarge until the in- 
cumbent air is so compressed in space, as to exert exactly the 
pressure of the vapour upon the external surface of the vessel. 
The pressure which now obtains within the globe is that due 
to the temperature of the water, according to the value assigned 
in the table before mentioned. M. Temaen assures Us, "om 
experiments, that the pressure will maintain this value if the 
walls of the including vessel be now removed. Dr. Dalton, 
however, deduced from his experiments a different rule. On 
removal of the partition supposed to separate the gaseous fluids, 
more aqueous vapour will be generated in proportion to the 
space occupied by the air, it will cross the boundary and fill 
that space as if it were a vacuum, the air at the same time will 
cross the boundary and expand into the space engaged by 
aqueous vapour as if it were a vacuwm, and a pressure will re- 
sult, the sum of that due to the temperature of the water and 
that of the air originally enclosed. 

M. Lamont has found that a globe connected with an iced 
receiver by a tube one line in diameter may for two hours be 
occupied by water at a temperature of 100° Fahrenheit without 
signs of distillation taking place. Yet the pressure within the 


Bui), 1s Double Stars. 


globe and receiver M. Lamont found to be compounded of that — 
of the heated air and of the aqueous vapour with which the 
eerial space of the globe was saturated (by convection). This 
experiment is proof sufficient, in the opinion of M. Lamont, 
that the particles of vapour and of air are not, as in the theory 
of Dalton, indifferent one to another as grains of dust, but 
exert upon one another a mutual and permanent reaction. 
Whereas the aqueous particles are incapable, at low tempera- 
tures, to exert those pressures by which they might assume 
among the particles of air positions of equal and independent 
action, M. Lamont advocates a view that an atomic combina- 
tion arises between these diverse particles, causing to the satu- 
rated air a character of humidity. This character he believes 
to be imparted to the air by actual contact only with the source 
of vapour, and not by any transfer of the particles of vapour 
among the particles of air. 


DOUBLE STARS.—OCCULTATIONS.—_THE HEARTH IN 
OPPOSITION. 


BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, F.R.A.S. 
DOUBLE STARS. 


We will return to the constellation Cygnus, before it passes 
away too far to the west, for the sake of a very inconspicuous 
object, but, at the same time, one of the most remarkable im 
the heavens—a double star, whose name, 61 Cygni, will ever be 
henceforth associated with a most memorable epoch in sidereal 
astronomy. ‘The unusual amount of the common proper motion 
discovered by Piazzi, in this pair, 6”°2 im R.A. and 3-2 in D. 
annually, or 1° in 700 years, induced the late eminent observer 
Bessel to suppose that it might be at a less impracticable dis- 
tance from the earth than its neighbours, and might indicate 
that distance by a sensible parallax. He therefore undertook 
this most delicate and difficult investigation with the great 
heliometer* at Koénigsberg, measuring, at different seasons of 
the year, the interval between the pair and two smaller stars 

* The instrument so called, or rather miscalled, is an achromatic telescope, the 
object-glass of which, after its completion, is cut across into two halves, each so 
mounted that the straight edges are capable of sliding against one another, in 
obedience to a screw movement, the handle of which is brought within reach of 
the observer. So long as the two halves maintain the same position which they 
had before bisection, they produce a single image at the focus like an ordinary 
object-glass ; but any lateral displacement has the immediate effect of converting 
this single image into two, whose distance can be varied at the pleasure of the 


Observer ; and in the same way the images of two distant objects in the same 
field cvn be made to coincide, and thus micrometrical measurements can be 


Double Stars. 3vL 


in the neighbourhood, lying in different directions from it, and 
whose positions might be assumed as sensibly invariable. Had 
these measures proved identical at all times, after allowance had 
been made for the pair’s proper motion, the inference would 
have been that all these four stars were at an equal distance 
from the earth, or, more correctly speaking, that the difference 
of their distances was inappreciable by this, or, in fact, any 
mode of measurement; while, on the contrary, any apparent 
shifting of place on the part of the brighter pair with respect 
to its minute neighbours, if it recurred at corresponding 
seasons of the year, could only be the result of a real motion 
in the spectator’s eye, and would not merely indicate that the 
stars In question are near enough to change their apparent 
position when viewed from different points of the earth’s orbit, 
but give the means of estimating their distance from the 
amount of that change. Sir W. Herschel had already attempted 
the parallax of the stars by looking out for annual variations in 
the apparent positions of close pairs; but while failing in one 
attempted discovery he, as is sometimes the case, stumbled 
upon another of not less importance connected with the cause 
of his failure; in trying to find a parallax, the result of one 
star’s being widely removed in point of distance from the other, 
he detected an orbital motion, the effect of that mutual proxi- 
mity which rendered parallax inappreciable; and thus his 
original object was reserved for another generation. Many 
years afterwards, Henderson, at the Cape of Good Hope, and 
Bessel, at Konigsberg, undertook nearly simultaneously the 
same important investigation ; Henderson attacking « Centauri, 
the most splendid double star in the whole heavens, but lying 
too far 8. to be visible in our latitudes, for the same reason 
which determined Bessel’s choice of 61 Cygni, namely, its 
great amount of proper motion. The priority of observation 
is undoubtedly due to Henderson in 1832, but to Bessel belonged 
the earlier announcement, by three weeks only, at the close of 
1838, of the discovery of sidereal parallax. It must have been 
an anxious time for these observers, when they were repeating, 
night after might, and season after season, the question- 
mgs on which depended the first step of our knowledge of the 
dimensions of the universe; and it must have been an hour of 


attained with a high degree of accuracy. These measurements are by no means 
applicable peculiarly to the Sun, as the very inappropriate name would imply, but 
are equally available for all objects in the same field. ‘Che principle of measurement 
by double focal images was discovered by Savery, in England, and Bouguer, in 
France, previously to the middle of the last century ; Dollond devised the great 
improvement of halving the object-glass, and Frauenhofer constructed the first of 
any celebrity, that mentioned in the text, which has an aperture, I believe, of 64 
inches. There is a still larger one, of 775 inches, by his suecessor Merz, at the 
Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. 


aye Double Stars. 


deep gratification when the starry height sent back the first 
answer ever vouchsafed to mortals— Our distance is not un- 
measurable ; our position is not unapproachable ; and, as far at 
least as we are concerned, the language of the book of Job 
receives a definite meaning for the first time since man was 
created upon the earth, ‘ Behold the height of the stars, how high 
they are!’*”? The quantities thus brought out were, however, 
very small, and subject, of course, to causes of error which would 
in some degree render them uncertain; but by the multiplica- 
tion and comparison of observations, the limits of such errors 
can be ascertained, and it may be now stated, with perfect cer- 
tainty, that the distance of 61 Cygni is measurable, and with 
much confidence that it amounts to about 52,000,000,000,000 
miles. Figures thus marshalled speak an almost unintelligible 
language ; and we may possibly aid our bewildered comprehen- 
sion by stating that this distance is 550,900 times that of the 
sun from us, and that it would take a ray of light 87’, years 
to traverse 1t,* while it occupies but 83 minutes in reaching us 
from the sun, at ninety-five millions of miles. And how 
strange is the impression following from this truth that we see 
not those stars, and much less others in their background, as 
they are now. We have not even any proof of their present 
existence! Had they been, eight years ago, blotted out of the 
roll of created things, we should still see them glittermg im 
their accustomed place, by the stream of light which had left 
its source before their extinction ; we view them as they were 
in the year 1853, without the slightest record or intimation of 
their subsequent history. At the same time, what an idea is 
given us, by the parallax discovered in this star, of the vast 
dimensions of that great universe in which we live, and how 
wonderfully does it, even in this one aspect, declare the 
Creator’s power and Godhead! The sky is crowded with mil- 
lions upon millions of stars; and of all that countless host, 
thousands, probably, for one, are at a distance incalculably 
greater than that of 61 Cygni!—It will require a little close 
attention to guide us to this remarkable pair, but our readers 
will probably not consider their trouble ill-bestowed. They 
must therefore imagine a line from y Cygni to a, and draw a 
similar one parallel to it from (for these stars, see InTEL- 
LECTUAL OpsErver for November, p. 304); this, at a distance 
equal to that of « from y, will fall upon a minute object lying a 
little p, o4 mag. and 7, 5 mag. ;} two stars near together, which 

* These values were somewhat differently given at first; the above are the 


result of Peters’s corrections, applied, according to Bessel’s intention, after the 
latter’s death. 


+ These are the magnitudes given in the larger star maps of the Society for the 
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; but it is worthy of remark that at the present 
time 7 is the brighter of the two. 


Double Stars. ale 


will help to identify it; it is much fainter than those stars, but 
still steadily visible to a goodeye. Its data are as follows: 

GIEVOleCygni. M156) 90%5:°(1830°81).4 1673229603 
(1839°69). 53 and 6. Yellow and deeper yellow. Period 
more than 540 years, according to Bessel, who thinks that their 
joit mass may be about half the mass of our sun. Their orbit 
may possibly be 50 times as large as that of the earth. Secchi’s 
measures, 1855°997, —17°:946 and 105°-93,—show its con- 
tinued motion, contrary to W. Struve’s opinion. 

Our next object is at the tip of the Swan’s H. wing. A 
line from y to e Cygni, prolonged as far again, but bent rather 
upwards, catches € Oygni, 3 mag.; if carried still onwards to 
the H. and a little to the 8., somewhat further from ¢ than € is 
from e, it falls upon « Pegasi, a 4 mag. star, a little N. of which 
is the following, of similar brightness :— 

62. w Oygni. 54, 1143. 5 and 6. White and pale 
blue (1839°62, 1850°6). So W. Struve, 1831-63. Sestini made 
them yellow and more yellow, 18445. Dembowski gave 
“jaune rougedtre”’ and “ olivatre,” 1853, 1854; “blanc jaune 
clair” and “jaune cendré,”’ 1855. I found the larger star 
yellow, 1850-69, 1851-81, while the other showed the curious 
effect, already mentioned in No. 29 of our list, of an undecided 
and changeable hue, blue and tawny. At present I see the 
principal star yellow. A third blue 74 mag. star, at 3’ 36'"8, 
completes this beautiful group. Secchi, whose colours are here 
uncertain and variable, found, for the close pair, 1857:559, 
4-364 and 116°10, and hence, and from the large value of its 
common proper motion, he considers that its physical connec- 
tion is unquestionable. 

A little E. of the galaxy, and nf Altair, lies a lozenge-shaped 
eroup of four moderate-sized stars, the lowermost with a com- 
panion close on its right, and another as a pendant to the whole. 
This is Delphinus ; more appropriately named than is usually the 
case with these strangely devised conficurations. ‘The nf, or 
uppermost star of the lozenge is— 

63. y Delphini. 11°°8. 2733. 4 and 7. Golden yellow 
and flushed grey, 1850-7. Smyth had made the smaller star light 
emerald in 1839, corresponding more with Struve’s viridice- 
rulea. Sir W. Herschel called them both white; whence, as 
he had a known bias for red tints, Struve infers the possibility 
of change. This, though without the interest, so far as we 
know, of physical connection, is a beautiful object, and within 
the reach of very small telescopes. Smyth commanded it with 
an aperture of two inches. 

In tracing the galaxy from Cassiopea towards the NH. hori- 
zon, we soon come to a fine 2 mage. star involved in a lucid glow 
arising from the presence of a number of minute attendants. 


374 Double Stars. 


This is a Perset, and it forms the starting-point of a remarkable 
sequence of 4 large stars, at nearly equal and considerable dis- 
tances, ranging in a great curve towards the right beneath 
Cassiopea, without the intervention of any remarkable object. 
Beginnine with a Persei, the others are y, 8, and a Andromede, 
often called respectively Alamak, Mirach, and Alpherat. We 
must look at the first of these three. 

64. y Andromede. 11”. 61°6. 3fand5g. Deep yellow 
and sea-green. ‘This, since its discovery by Christian Mayer in 
1778, has been known as one of the most brilliant and beautiful 
instances of contrasted colour, as well as one of the easiest pairs 
in the heavens. There is no evidence of orbital revolution, but 
a fresh degree of interest has been attached to this object since 
Struve, senior, discovered with the Dorpat achromatic, twenty 
years ago, that the smaller star was itself an exceedingly close 
and difficult pair. The distance is given as under 0"°5, and it 
consequently forms a most severe test of defining power. 
Cooke’s (of York) beautiful object-glasses of little more than 
4 inches will elongate it, and Mr. Lockyer, of Wimbledon, 
has divided it with 6} inches by the same hand—a great 
triumph of optical skill. Secchi at Rome actually measures it, 
and calls it easy / with the Merz achromatic of 94 inches, and 
its division is “a broad dark space” with the new equatorial 
at Greenwich of 122 mches, also from Munich. One of the 
new silvered glass specula manufactured by Léon Foucault (a 
remarkable invention, of which we shall shortly hear more in 
England) has accomplished the separation with about the same 
aperture ; but as much has been done by a metallic mirror of 
9+ inches, figured by Lassell. I have repeatedly elongated it 
with my 53-mch object-glass. The little discs are of unequal 
magnitude, the nearer to the great star being the larger. A 
difference of hue was noted by Secchi in 1856, who calls them 
subviridis and violacea. The late Sir W. K. Murray, of Och- 
tertyre, who had a 9-inch telescope by Cooke, discovered 
independently, in 1857, that they were yellow and blue. 
Dawes, with an 8-inch Alvan Clark object-glass, made the same 
observation ; and Jacob, at Madras, with the Lerebours achro- 
matic of 64 inches, though unable to divide them, found the 
larger end of the wedge yellowish, the other bluish. Few of 
our readers may hope to verify these details ; yet it may interest 
them to know, when they gaze upon that minute speck, what 
other telescopes exhibit there. 

a Andromedce, already mentioned, stands at the left-hand 
upper corner of a rectangle of large stars, so fairly reeular that 
the bottom line is sensibly horizontal, and the right side nearly 
vertical, when on the meridian. ‘This is the square of Pegasus, 
marking the H. portion of that wide-spread constellation. At 


Double Stars. Bit) 


the other upper corner is 8 Pegasi or Scheat; the star beneath 
Bis a, Markab ; y Pegasi occupies the left corner below. It 
may assist the student in acquiring the useful practice of esti- 
mating degrees, if he knows that the length of the bottom of 
the square is 17°, and of the right side is 13°, the top bemg 
about 16°, and the left side 14°. If from a Pegasi we drawa 
line back to our old acquaintance Delphinus, 1t will pass some 
way above a solitary star, the brightest in a considerable region. 
This is— 

65. « Pegasi. 2’ 181. 3243. 2hand9. Bright yellow 
and blue lilac. A 14 mag. star at 1’ 25” and 327 makes this 
a triple group with a sufficient aperture. The object is not in 
itself a remarkable one, but is inserted here as a striking ex- 
ample of a phenomenon which seems to have been first noticed 
by Sir J. Herschel. He found that when two unequal stars, 
as of 4 and 9 mag., are situated at a moderate distance (10” to 
60” or 80"), nearly in a vertical line, on giving the telescope a 
swinging motion in a horizontal direction, the image of the 
small star will oscillate, ike a ball hung by a string, through 
an arc greater in proportion to the difference of brightness ; 
sometimes as much as 15° or 20° on each side of the vertical. 
This he thinks is owing to the longer time which may be re- 
quired for a feebler light to affect the retina, whence the change 
of motion in a bright pomt may be more speedily perceived 
than in a famt one. e¢ Pegasi is an excellent instance of this 
optical deception : it will, however, be too late to see it well at 
the present season, as the position of the small star renders it 
vertical before passing the meridian, which it does at about 5h. 
in the beginning of December; but we shall remember it 
another year. 

A diagonal of the square, from a Andromede through a Pe- 
gast, bent a httle downwards, pomts to a small “‘caltrop” or 
triangle of stars, with a fourth in its interior. This inner star 
is— 

66. ¢ Aquaru. 375. 352°4 (1838-04). 3°2. 34679 
(1852°81). 4and 43. Flushed white and creamy. There can 
be no doubt of the binary character of this beautiful pair, whose 
connection was discovered by Herschel I. in 1804. Its period 
may possibly be about 750 years ; but an accurate determination 
is yet wanting. Secchi gives 3’"328 and 344°03 (1856-835). 
It is within the reach of small apertures. I have seen it per- 
fectly with 2? inches, and less would no doubt have sufficed. 

A line from ¢ Pegasi through the last object, carried as far 
again, falls on a group of three small stars close together; the 
one to the right is— 

67. a Aquaru. 495. 310°. 53 and 9. Topaz yellow 
and cerulean blue. In fine contrast, but apparently stationary. 


376 Occultations.—The Harth in Opposition. 


Struve, however, asserts a probable connection from common 
proper motion. 

To find our next object we must suppose a line drawn from 
Cassiopeia between B and y Andromede ; this, at an equal dis- 
tance beyond those stars, points out three stars lying near 
together, the two to the right being closest, and the small one 
being furthest in that direction, as well as lower than its neigh- 
bour. ‘These form the head of Aries, and the small star is— 

68. y Arietis. 8°°8. 3598. 42 and 5. Full white and 
faint blue. Piazzi Smyth made them both of the same colour, 
either white or ight yellow, on the Peak of Teneriffe in 1856 : 
W. Struve, “ egregie albee”’ in 1830: Dembowski, both white in 
1852, 1854, and 1856. A fine pair, stationary, but, as it seems, 
moving together through space. Discovered by Hook in 1664: 
while following the comet of that year ; ‘‘ I took notice,” he says, 
“that it consisted of two small stars very near together ; alike 
instance to which I have not else met with in all the heavens.” 
And in 1837, Struve had catalogued 2787, nearly all much 
more difficult! A very small telescope will bring it mto view. 
Smyth found two inches of aperture sufficient for it. 

Of the three stars already mentioned in the head of Aries, 
the brightest, a, stands to the left. A line from y Andromedae 
to this star will leave, a little to the left, and above its centre, 
two stars, 8 (4 mag.) and y (5 mag.) Virvanguli. Another line 
from y, the smaller of these, to a Arietis, will pass, at 4 of the 
distance, the following pretty object, which, though visible to 
the naked eye, must be sought with some care in the telescope, 
as there are several other not much smaller stars nearit :— 

69. « Trianguli. 3°°5. 7&8. 53 and 7. ‘Topaz yellow 
and green. Secchi, who calls this ‘‘a most beautiful object,” 
makes its colours white or yellow and blue. It is stationary. 


OCCULTATIONS. 


Of these, at convenient hours, the month contains only three. 
December 3rd, 40 Arietis, 6 mag., immerges at 4h. 58m. and 
emerges at 5h. 35m.; 9th, 5 Cancri, 6 mag., disappears at 
9h. 30m. and reappears at 10h. 387m.; 23rd, 7? Capricorni, 
5 mag., is concealed from 4h. 48m. to 5h. 52m. It may be 
well to remind our readers that there will be a total eclipse of 
the moon in the early morning of December 6, though the 
circumstances are unfavourable, as it begins about 4h. 32m., 
and the moon sets a little before 8h., just after the middle of 
the eclipse. 

THE LARTH IN OPPOSITION. 


It is a curious and a pleasant inquiry, what may be presumed 
to be the telescopic aspect of our globe from the planet Venus 


The Harth in Opposition. 377 


or Mercury; and though, of course, demonstrative certainty in 
the reply is not within our reach, we may be led to some inte- 
resting conclusions. We shall of course suppose the case of 
the nearest approach of either of those planets when they pass 
between ourselves and the sun. In such circumstances, as was 
explained in No. VIII. of the present work, an apparently 
retrograde motion will bring us up with a great broad disc into 
their midnight sky, and all our features will lie open before the 
distant observer’s gaze. There can be little question that the 
distinction of our continents and oceans would be very per- 
ceptible, from the superior reflective power of the former as 
contrasted with the absorbent property of the latter, which, as 
is Shown by experiments with the diving bell, soon extinguishes 
the solarrays. ‘The general aspect of the land would no doubt 
be various from the effect of local colour where sufficiently 
extensive, and the vegetation of the prairies and pampas would 
be readily distinguishable from the sands of the Sahara; but 
diversities on a smaller scale would be merged by distance in a 
compound gray of the third order of colour: the appearance of 
the water would also be greatly contrasted in different parts, 
from its varying degrees of depth and consequent translucency. 
Islands would, of course, be in general perceptible in proportion 
to their size as brighter specks ; but it may admit of a question 
whether an island, or, indeed, a line of coast, would be in all 
cases easily distmmguished from an adjacent shallow sea.* The 
polar regions of ice and snow would of course be strongly 
marked, with their extension or contraction according to the 
time of year; but im consequence of the inclination of the 
earth’s axis, their presentation would differ greatly at different 
seasons : if the supposed opposition of the earth should coincide 
with our Huropean summer, the N. snows would alone be conspi- 
cuous, enterimg far into the visible hemisphere, but diminishing 
gradually with the continued action of the sun; if during our 
winter, the reverse would occur; in spring or autumn each 
pole would show its white segment at the edge of the disc; 
but in every case, as our poles of temperature are not coincident 
with our poles of rotation, and our continental are very different 


* “ At the eastern extremity of the island, where the rocks break off steeply 
some hundreds of feet, we saw every object of the port nearly beneath, and 
apparently within stone’s throw. A novel sight to us was the bottom of the 
harbour, seen through the clear greenish water with considerable distinctness 
almost from end to end. Patches of sea-weed, dark rocks, and white gravel, 
seemed to be lying in the bottom of a shallow mirror, across which small fishes, 
large ones in reality, were wandering at their leisure. This was a picturesque 
revelation. Upon the surface of the harbour the depth of water very nearly 
shuts out all view of the bottom. I am beginning to think, that a few thousand 
feet above the ocean, in a bright day, would enable the eye to pierce it to an 
extraordinary depth.’’—Noble’s After Icebergs with a Painter, pp. 182, 183. 


VO le ——NO} Vic DD 


378 | The Earth in Opposition. 


from our insular climates,* the brightness of our arctic ‘and 
antarctic regions would be unsymmetrical in extent, and their 
aspect would differ materially as different sides of our globe 
were brought round by our diurnal rotation. ‘The frozen sum- 
mits of such extensive ranges as the Himalaya or Andes would 
no doubt be perceptible with sufficient optical power; but the 
shadows of our mountains would of course be equally mvisible 
with those in the full moon, and from the same cause; and it 
does not seem likely that even our largest river courses would 
have sufficient magnitude to be seen. As the rotation of our 
globe, combined with the imclination of its axis, would, in 
successive oppositions, bring the whole of the surface before 
the eye, it might at first be thought an easy task to map all its 
outlines with precision ; but the atmosphere would in all lke- 
hhood interpose most serious difficulties. From its property of 
transmitting red light, as shown in our sunrise and sunset, and 
in the face of the totally eclipsed moon, it will probably com- 
municate a slight ruddy tinge to our disc, like a famt wash of 
red passed over a drawing ; but this hue would be very feeble, 
if at all apparent, in the centre, coming out chiefly from the 
oblique transit of the ray through the atmosphere towards the 
edges of the globe; and it would be immaterial compared 
with the confusion arising from the local condensation of its 
watery particles. There can be no doubt that Schroter was 
mistaken in thinking that accumulations of vapour would appear 
as dark spots upon a planetary disc; the worthy old Hanoverian 
(and a very worthy fellow he seems to have been) confounded 
the interior effect, or that produced upon an eye beneath them, 
which, of course, would be one of gloom from itercepted 
heht, with the exterior aspect to a ‘distant observer, which 
would be eminently luminous, few bodies reflecting a more 
intense white ight than the upper surface of a densely com- 
pacted cloud: and hence those regions of the earth which are 
sometimes for months together overshadowed by a cloudy pall, 
must, to an external eye, present a peculiarly white and lumi- 
nous appearance ; while, for a like reason, the edges of the disc, 
where oblique vision would render vapour more perceptible, 
would possess not only the ruddier, as before suggested, but 
the more vivid light. And thus it is easy to see how baffling an 
impediment our ‘atmospheric variations must imterpose in the 
way of any accurate comprehension and delineation of the 
features of our globe, and how the configurations which a 
distant observer would at one time congratulate himself upon 
haying satisfactorily traced, might, after a short interval, be 
wholly defaced and obliterated, or so intermingled with the 


* See this fact admirably illustrated by Professor C. Piozzi Smyth, in his 
most interesting and pleasant book, Three Cities in Russia. 


The Habits of the Aye-Aye. ovo 


outlines of superjacent vaporous masses, as to produce a degree 
of entanglement requirimg a long period for the extrication of 
anything like a reliable result. 

Our readers will have easily perceived the bearing of these 
remarks upon the recent position and aspect of the planet 
Mars. How far a correspondence between the two globes 
may be made out, and where the analogy seems to escape us, 
is an interesting subject of inquiry, as to which, it may be 
hoped that some of them may have been providing themselves 
with materials for comparison and reflection. 


THE HABITS OF THE AYE-AYH. 
BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 


THE opportune arrival of a living mature female Aye-aye at the 
Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, has enabled observations to 
be made regarding its habits and food which tend to modify 
very considerably the suggestions which were thrown out by 
Dr. Sandwith and Professor Owen, and which were embodied in 
a paper published in the first volume of the Inrmnumcruar 
OBSERVER. 

For the greater number of the facts contained in the follow- 
ing short account of the habits of the animal as exhibited in 
confinement, I must express my obhgations to Mr. Bartlett, the 
superintendent of the gardens, who is ever ready to impart 
information, and to afford every facility for the furtherance of 
zoological research. 

For an account of the structure of this smeular and anoma- 
lous animal, I must refer to the paper previously published, Vol. 
I. p. 180, where its singular combination of the squirrel-like 
gnawing teeth of a rodent with the grinders and extremities of 
a quadrumanous animal, are illustrated and described in detail. 

In confinement the Aye-aye proves to be a nocturnal 
animal; during the day it sleeps curled up and covered by its 
bushy tail. Im the night, however dark, Mr. Bartlett states 
that it moves about in its cage, and gnaws holes in the timber 
with its powerful rodent incisors. When undisturbed it not 
unfrequently hangs suspended by the hind claws, and uses the 
elongated probe-hke finger of the hand for the purpose of clean- 
ing and combing the tail, it bemg passed through the long hairs 
of that organ with great rapidity ; this attenuated finger 1s also . 
used. for the purpose of picking the ears, eyes, and nose, the 
other fingers being partially closed. ‘The supposed adaptation 
of this animal’s peculiar organization to insectivorous habits, 


380 Comets. 


receives no confirmation from its proceedings as exhibited in 
confinement, where it has refused every variety of insect food, 
such as mealworms, grasshoppers, the larvee of wasps, etc., etc., 
feeding solely upon thick sweet glutinous fluids, such as honey, 
or a mixture of milk and eggs; this food is taken by a very 
rapid movement of the hand, the left only being employed ; 
during the process the fourth finger is thrust into the food, and 
passed rapidly backwards and forwards between the lips, depo- 
siting food at each movement, the tongue and lips being in full 
motion during the whole time of feeding. Sometimes, though 
rarely, the animal will lap the food in the manner of a cat. 

The conclusion to which Mr. Bartlett inclines is, that the 
animal is not naturally insectivorous, but that with its large 
and powerful incisor teeth it excavates cavities in the trunks of 
such trees as possess a saccharine sap, and feeds upon the fluid 
that collects mm these cavities ; this appears the more probable as 
the Aye-aye is noticed to return repeatedly to the same cavity. 
lt is obvious that we have still much to learn respecting the 
habits of this singular creature, and its possession must be re- 
garded as a fortunate acquisition to our valuable and unrivalled 
collection of living animals. 

It may be stated as a singular fact worthy of record, that 
the Aye-aye has not been heard to utter any vocal sound either 
during the day nor at night, when she seems to exhibit the 
ereatest amount of activity and energy. 


COMETS. 


AN ACCOUNT OF ALL THE COMETS WHOSE ORBITS HAVE NOT BEEN CALCULATED. 
BY G. CHAMBERS. 


In the present day it rarely happens that a comet becomes 
visible without its being observed at any rate sufficiently long 
for some approximation to the elements of its orbit to be de- 
duced. Such, however, was not the case in days gone by. Ob- 
servers were few, and of observatories and instruments there 
were none; and so we are dependent for the information we 
possess on the writings of the historians and chroniclers, which 
seldom contain more than bare statements, with few or no de- 
tails. Instruments and calculations did not come into general 
use till within the last two hundred years, before which period 
all accounts are more or less vague and uncertain. 

The first who made any systematic attempt to put together 
the various allusions to comets in the old writers was the French 
astronomer Pingré, who, in 1783, published his celebrated 


Comets. 381 


Cométographie ; ow Traité Historique et Théoretique des Cométes. 
This work, which for the industry and labour bestowed upon it, 
has few equals, has been the astronomer’s text-book on the 
subject of cometary history from the period of its publication 
down to the present day. No attempt has ever been made to 
supersede it, the utmost that has been done having been to 
supplement it by the reproduction in Hurope of certain Chinese 
accounts not accessible in the time of Pingré. 

Our present catalogue is of course based upon Pingré’s, but 
in the preparation of 1t much material assistance has been de- 
rived from Mr. Hind’s scholarly catalogue, commenced in the 
Companion to the Almanac for 1859, but, unfortunately, since 
interrupted. Brevity being an essential pre-requisite, we have 
been obliged to omit much that was interesting, and to confine 
our attention to necessary facts and figures, only giving a 
limited number of references. 

It may be convenient to make a few remarks on the Chinese 
observations to which such constant reference is made. They 
were originally Huropeanized by MM. Couplet, Gaubil, and De 
Mailla, Jesuit priests at Pekin, who made very good use of their 
opportunities of benefiting science. De Mailla’s MSS. were 
published at Paris in the last century, but the MSS. of Couplet 
and Gaubil are still unpublished. Within the last twenty years 
M. H. Biot has done some service by the translation of sundry 
Chinese catalogues of comets and meteors, and it is not impos- 
sible that, as our intercourse with that remarkable people be- 
comes greater, further sources of information may be opened 
to us. 

1770+. St. Augustine has preserved the following extract 
from Varro :—‘‘ There was seen a wonderful prodigy in the 
heavens, worthy to be compared with the brilliant star Venus, 
which Plautus and Homer, each in his own language, call the 
* Evening Star.’ Castor avers that this fine star changed colour, 
size, figure, and path; that it was never seen before, and has 
mever been seen since. Adrastus of Cyzicus, and Dion the Nea- 
politan, refer the appearance of this prodigy to the reign of 
Ogyges.”—(De Civit. xxi. 8.) This description, such as it is, 
may be presumed to be that of a comet, but no further particu- 
Jars have been preserved. 

1194+. On the fall of Troy, we are told by Hyginus, a con- 
temporary of Ovid, that Hlectra, one of the Pleiads, quitted the 
company of her six sisters, and passed alone the heavens to- 
wards the Arctic Pole, where she remained visible for a long 
time in tears and with dishevelled hair, to which the name of 
“comet” is applied.—(Fréret, Acad. des Inscript. x. 357.) 
What we are to understand by this is doubtful, but it may re- 
late to a comet. 


oo2 Comets. 


975+. “The Hgyptians and the Aithiopians felt the dire 
effects of this comet, to which T'yphon, who reigned then, gave 
his name. It appeared all on fire, and was twisted in the form 
of a spiral, and had a hideous aspect ; 1t was not so much a star 
as a knot of fire.’—(Phn. Mist. Nat. u. 23.) Date very un- 
certain. 

619 or 618. “ We shall see in the west a star, such as is 
called a comet; it will announce to men war, famine, and the 
death of several distinguished leaders.’”—(Sybill. Orac. 11.) 
Though given as a prophecy, Pinegré feels justified in citing this. 
passage as a historical record. 

612. In August a comet appeared amongst the seven stars 
of Ursa Major.—(Confucius, Tehwn-tsieou, quoted by Ma-tuoan- 
lin.) 

533. At the winter solstice, a comet appeared in Aquarius, 
and the tail of Capricornus.—(Gaubil; Ma-tuoan-lin gives, from 
Confucius, 531 as the date.) 

524. In the winter a comet passed from Scorpio to the 
Milky Way.—(Gaubil; De Mailla, Hist. Gen. 1.193.) 

481. A comet appeared at the end of the year in the eastern 
part of the heavens. Its length was 2°, and it reached from 
the star Yng (?) to a Scorpiii—(Gaubil; Ma-tuoan-ln; De 
Mailla, 11. 222.) 

479. At the time of the battle of Salamis, a comet m the 
shape of a horn was visible—(Pln. i. 23.) 

465. + During a period of sixty-five days, an extraordinary 
object.appeared in the sky, according to the testimony of several 
writers. It may have been a comet, but an Aurora Borealis 
would seem best to reconcile the various Huropean statements. 
—(Damachus; Pl. 1.59.) Ma-tuoan-lin speaks of a comet in 
466, which Pingré considers identical with the “ extraordimary 
object” of the Huropean writers. 

432. It is certain that a comet appeared im this year.— 
(Couplet ; De Mailla, ii. 244; Ma-tuoan-lin.) 

426 or 402. At the time of the winter solstice, during the 
archonship of Huclides, at Athens, a comet appeared near the 
North Pole.—(Aristot.. Meteor. i. 6.) There were two archons 
of this name, so it is impossible to fix the year of this comet’s 
apparition. 

360. A comet was seen in China and Japan in the west.— 
(Couplet ; De Mailla, 11.267; Kaempfer. Hist. Japon, 11.) 

345 (?) A comet in the form ofa mane, which was afterwards: 
changed into that of a spear.—(Plin. ii. 22.) Date very uncer- 
tain. Pliny gives the double date of the Olympiad, and a. v.¢., 
which do not correspond, so one or other must be wrong. Our 
°345’ is from Pineré. 

344, “ Onthe departure of the expedition of Timoleon from 


Comets. 383 


Corinth for Sicily, the gods announced his success and future 
greatness by an extraordinary prodigy. A burning torch ap- 
peared in the heavens for an entire night, and went before the 
fleet to Sicily.”’—(Diod. Sic. Hist. xvi. 11; Plut. Vit. Timol.) 
Pineré remarks—lIt is easy to see that the comet appeared in 
the West, and had a considerable north declination. 

304. A comet was seen in China.—(Ma-tuoan-lin; De 
Mailla, u. 306.) 

302. A comet was seen in China.—(Ma-tuoan-lin ; De Mailla, 
u. 306.) The Chinese annalist expressly says there were two 
comets in two years. 

295. A comet was seen in China.—(Ma-tuoan-lin.) 

239. A comet was seen in China. It came from the Hast, 
and passed by the North and in the 5th Moon (June or July), it 
was seen during sixteen days in the West.—(Ma-tuoan-lin.) 

237. In the 9th year of Chi-hoang-ti, a star appeared in the 
horizon. In May it was seenin the West; it appeared then in 
the North, and took eighty days to go from Sagittarius to the 
South.—(Ma-tuoan-lin.) 

233. A comet was seen in China in February or March, in 
the Hast.—(Ma-tuoan-lin.) 

213. A brilliant star was seen in China to come from the 
West.—(Ma-tuoan-lin; De Mailla, 1.399.) Probably a comet. 

203. A torch extended from Hast to West for ten days 
during the latter half of August, or the first half of September. 
lt appeared near Arcturus (a Bodtis).—(Jul. Obseq. Prodig. 
Suppl.; Ma-tuoan-lin.) 

202. A burning torch was seen in the heavens.—(Jul. 
Obseq.) 

171. Alarge comet with atail was seen in China at the end. 
of summer.—(Couplet; De Mailla, 1. 554.) 

168. A torch was seen in the heavens.—(Jul. Obseq.) 

166. A burning torch was seen in the heavens.—(Jul. 
Obseq.) 

165. A torch was seen in the heavens.—(Jul. Obseq.) We 
are also told that at one place the sun was seen for several 
hours in the night, so that if this object was a comet it must 
have been an extremely brilliant one. 

156. In October a comet 10° long appeared in the West. It 
was visible for twenty-one days, and traversed Aquarius, Hquu- 
leus, and Pegasus.—(Ma-tuoan-lm; De Mailla u. 568.) 

154 [i.] A comet came from the South-west in January.— 

(Ma-tuoan-lin; De Mailla ii. 569.) 

154 [i1.] In September a comet appeared in the N.H.— 

(De Mailla 1. 569.) 


(To be continued.) 


384 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 


BY W. B. THGHETMETER. 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF 
SCIENCH. 


Dr. Morrat read a very interesting paper “ On the Luminosity of 
Phosphorus.” If a piece of phosphorus be put under a bell-glass 
it will be found at times luminous, and at others non-luminous. 
When it is luminous, a stream of vapour rises from it, which some- 
times terminates in an inverted cone of rings similar to those given 
off during the spontaneous combustion of phosphoretted hydrogen ; 
and at others it forms a beautiful curve, with a descending limb 
equal in length to the ascending one. The vapour is attracted by a 
magnet and by heat, butit is repelled by cold. It renders steel 
needles magnetic, and it is perceived only when the phosphorus is 
luminous. Daily observations of the phosphorus for a period of 
eighteen months, show that the periods of luminosity or non-lumi- 
nosity occur under opposite conditions of the atmosphere ; the for- 
mer being peculiar to the equatorial, while the latter to the polar 
current. By the catalytic action of phosphorus on atmospheric air, 
a gaseous body (superoxide of hydrogen) is formed, which is analo- 
gous to, or identical with, atmospheric ozone. The author has found 
that phosphoric ozone is developed only when the phosphorus is 
luminous, and that atmospheric ozone is produced only under these 
atmospheric conditions in which phosphorus is luminous. From 
observations extending over several years, it appears that 99 per 
cent. of lumimous periods and 91 per cent. of ozone periods, 
commence with decreasing readings of the barometer and other 
conditions of the equatorial current; and that 94 per cent. and ~ 
66 per cent. terminate with increasing readings and the con- 
ditions of the polar current. Luminous periods commence and 
luminosity increases in brilliancy on the approach of storms and 
gales, and ozone periods commence and increase in quantity under 
similar conditions. There is, it would appear also from these 
observations, an intimate connection between the approach of storms, 
the commencement of lyminous and ozone periods, and disorders of 
the nervous, muscular, and vascular systems. The author gave the 
dates of many storms and gales, and the occurrence of diseases of 
the above class, showiny their coincidence ; and in corroboration of 
what he had stated, he mentioned the fact that there was a concur- 
rence in the issuing of Admiral FitzRoy’s cautionary telegrams and 
these diseases. He also stated that he views the part performed by 
ozone in the atmosphere as being’ similar to that performed by pro- 
tein in the blood ; the latter giving oxygen for the disorganization of 
worn-out tissues in the animal economy—the former giving oxygen 
to the products of decomposition and putrefaction, and rendermg 
them innocuous or salutary compounds. With these views the 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 385 


author had used ozone, artificially produced by the action of phos- 
phorus, as a disinfectant in localities tainted with the products of 
putrefaction. 

Dr. Dauseny read a paper ‘“ On the last Eruption of Vesuvius :” 
Vesuvius appears during the last few years to have entered upon a 
new phase of action. Its eruptions are more frequent but less vio- 
lent than they were formerly ; they proceed from a lower level than 
they did at an earlier period, and they give gaseous principles, such 
as the vapour of naphtha and light carburetted hydrogen, never before 
detected. The last eruption caused an elevation of the coast to the 
height of three feet seven inches above the level of the sea, which 
has not been observed on any preceding occasion. Dr. Daubeny 
suggested that Vesuvius was passing into the condition of a mud 
volcano, the products issuing from it being simply owing to the action 
of volcanic heat on the contiguous beds of Apennine limestone con- 
taining bituminous matters ; hence the carbonic acid and carburetted 
hydrogen and naphtha vapour emitted, which were to be regarded 
as mere secondary products, to be distinguished from the muriatic 
and sulphurous vapours indicating primary volcanic action. 

An interesting discussion took place “On Colour as a Test of 
the Races of Man,” by Dr. Crawrurp. The author stated that he 
considered colour in different races to be a character imprinted. 
upon them from the beginning, because, as far as our expe- 
rience goes, neither time, climate, nor locality has produced any 
change. He contended that climate had no influence in determin- 
ing colour in different races. Finns and Laps, though further north, 
are darker than the Swedes; and within the Arctic circle we find 
Hsquimaux of the same colour and complexion as the Malays under 
the Equator. Yellow Hottentots and Bushmen live in the imme- 
diate neighbourhood of Black Caffres and negroes. Sir C. Nichol- 
son opposed Mr. Crawfurd’s conclusions. The variety of the human 
races, as they now are, had, doubtless, existed for along time. Tombs 
of very great antiquity showed this. But there is now in India 
a race of Jews perfectly black ;* and in China the Jews had long 
become the same in physiognomy as the Chinese, and the Jews 
never intermarry. Among the natives of America there was an evi- 
dent approximation to the Red Indian in physiognomy; they were 
assuming the hatchet face and losing the beard. The same effect 
could be discerned among the Huropean population of Australia. 

Dr. Gray read a paper on the “‘ Remarkable change of form of 
the Head which occurs during the growth of certain species of 
Crocodiles.” Itis found that when first hatched all the crocodiles 
have the front of the face shortened and rounded ; even those in the 
adult state have an elongated beak. During growth the nose 
gradually lengthens and assumes the form characteristic of the 
particular species; and when the animal attains its adult size, the 
bones of the head dilate so as to be competent to the support of the 
Jarge teeth the animal requires in its adult stage. This change of 


* The black Jews of India are proselytes, not even claiming to be regarded 
o f Hebrew origin.—Ep. I. O. 


386. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


form is so considerable that naturalists have regarded the animals 
when in different stages as distinct species. 


ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—WNov. 3. 


Destruction or Insurious Insecrs py Harp-sitep Brirps.—In 
the course of a debate on the destruction of insects ijurious to 
cultivated vegetables, Mr. Mitford stated that, from repeated and 
careful observation, he had assured himself that the gooseberry and 
currant caterpillar, the larva of the Nematus ventricosus, so well known 
for its devastating action on the leaves, and consequently on the 
fruit ofthe gooseberry, etc., is devoured in great number by sparrows 
and chaifinches, especially during the period of their feeding their 
young, and also that this particular caterpillar does not appear to be 
preyed upon by the soft-billed birds, such as the warblers, etc. 


GHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.—Nov. 5. 


On a Duposrr contarninc Driaromacea, Leaves, ETC., IN THE TRON- 
oRE Mines neaR Unyersron. By Miss EH. Hodgson.—The object of 
this paper was to show that this deposit was deposited in a large 
cavern or chain of caverns by a subterranean stream, originating 
probably in a brook called the ‘“ Poaka Beck.” The authoress first 
described in detail some of the various caverns and swallow-holes 
which abound in the limestone of the district, and then alluded to 
the current belief of their communication with each other, and 
with springs. Miss Hodgson also remarked that, prior to the year 
1842, the Poaka Beck, after having become partially engulphed at 
Inman Gill, is said to have taken a subterranean course; since the 
above-named date, its course has been diverted. The paper concluded. 
with a list of the Diatomacece found in the deposit, with notes on 
the places where they occur in the streams of the district, and with 
some remarks on the vegetable remains. 


On tHE ASSOCIATION OF GRANITE WiTH THE TERTIARY STRATA 
wEAR Kineston. By J. G. Sawkins, Hsq., F.G.S.—The occasion of 
this letter was the discovery by the author of a granitic formation 
traversing Jamaica in a direction from §.H. to N.W., being the same 
as that of the earthquake shocks. It pierces the carbonaceous 
series, and also the Tertiary strata, whence the author concludes 
that itis of Tertiary age. It usually contaims copper-ores, and is 
often more or less decomposed. 


ROYAL GHOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—Nov. 10. 


HExpiorations 1n AusTraniA.—Mr. Landsborough’s and Captain 
Norman’s expeditions from Moreton Bay to the Gulf of Carpentaria, 
and thence southwards across the continent to the River Darling, 
had resulted im the discovery of large tracts of country available 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 387 


for pastoral purposes. The climate was described as generally 
healthy ; and the valleys of the Baren River and other districts were 
shown to possess all the elements for the support of a vast popula- 
tion. Sir Richard MacDonnell observed that the theories of vast 
deserts and inland seas of Australia were gradually disappearing ; 
and he could testify, from personal experience, that although it was 
neither a rich nor a barren country, yet it possessed excellent ma- 
terials for the development of pastoral wealth. He also said, that 
if cotton were to be grown in Australia, he believed the fittest spot for 
its cultivation would be found near the Victoria River. Sir Charles 
Nicholson, of New South Wales, agreed as to the adaptability of the 
soil and climate for the growth of cotton, and stated that 200 bales 
of cotton shipped at Moreton Bay were daily expected in England. 
Governor Kennedy, of Western Australia, exhibited two huge 
oyster-shells, which he was told were worth £140 per ton when im- 
ported into this country, a fact rendering that portion of Australia 
as valuable as the gold-producing ones. 


—— 


ZOOLOGICAL SOCIHTY.—WNov. 11. 


Discovery or A New British Snaxe.—Mr. Frank Buckland 
described the capture, and exhibited living specimens of the Coronella 
levis, a common Huropean snake, but not hitherto ascertained to be 
a British species. Several specimens have been captured in Hamp- 
shire, etc. This snake is distinguished from the ordinary species, 
Coluber natriz, by the scales not having a raised keel or central 
elevated line ; it is also viviparous, as has been demonstrated by one 
captured specimen that produced several living young. 


- CHEMICAL SOCIETY.—WNov. 20. ' 


SPONTANEOUSLY INFLAMMABLE GASEOUS COMPOUND OF SILICON AND 
Hyprocen.—Dr. Hoffmann made a communication to the members 
on the preparation of this highly-imteresting compound, illustrating 
his remarks by a new and striking experiment. It is believed that 
silicon belongs to the same group of elements as carbon, but though 
the normal carburetted hydrogen, C, H,, has been long known, 
indications only of the existence of the corresponding silicon com- 
pound have been obtained, and these quite recently. Berzelins 
pointed out long ago the existence of a body which he believed to 
contain hydride of silicon—it was a solid, however, not a gas—and 
will probably turn out to be the hydrated oxide of silicon, since 
obtained by Wohler. It is to the latter chemist that we owe the 
recognition of silicuretted hydrogen. In an experiment where 
water was being decomposed by a galvanic current, bubbles of a 
spontaneously inflammable gas were observed to rise from the 
aluminium electro-negative pole employed. Analysis proved the 
aluminium to contain a considerable quantity of silicon as an 


388 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


impurity. The conditions under which the new gas was formed 
still remained obscure, although Wohler had done much to clear 
them up: quite lately, however, Dr. Martius had discovered a way 
of making silicuretted hydrogen in abundance. A mixture is made of 

80 parts of chloride of magnesium. 

20 parts of chlorides of potassium and sodium mixed in equi- 
valents. 

40 parts of sodium. 

70 parts of silicofluoride of potassium. 
The various salts, perfectly dry, are first intimately mixed together 
and then introduced into a wide-mouthed bottle; the sodium, cut 
into pieces the size of a small pea, is then added, and the whole 
contents of the bottle well agitated. A tall Hessian crucible having 
een heated to bright redness, the mixture is suddenly projected 
into it, and the cover placed upon the crucible. When the mass is 
fused the crucible is withdrawn from the furnace, broken, and the 
slag removed. This slag serves, by reason of the silicide of mag- 
nesium which it contains, for the preparation of the desired gas. It 
is necessary to break up the slag into fragments, and act upon them 
under water with strong hydrochloric acid. The gas, the com- 
position of which seems to be Si,, Hi, 1s at once liberated, and 
may be collected over water or mercury. If a bubble of the gas be 
allowed to escape into the air, it bursts into flame with explosive 
violence, a white, hollow, cylindrical ring of smoke ascends, rotating, 
undulating, and widening as it goes up, and distributing, when it 
breaks, a multitude of fine flakes of dry silica. All the appearances 
noticed remind the spectator forcibly of the phosphuretted hydrogen, 
but there is no offensive smell produced. When the gas is left long 
in contact with water, the curious hydrated oxide is formed, to 
which we have already alluded. This substance is white, and when 
dried and heated in a tube, scintillates just like the analogous sub- 
stance obtained by the oxidation of graphite. This oxide of silicon 
has the formula Si, H, O,,. 


ROYAL SOCIETY, November 20. 


On tHE Foss, Birp rrom SoLnenHoren.—Professor Owen read 
an elaborate paper descriptive of the remarkable fossil bird, from the 
lithographic stone of Solenhofen, which is described in the article 
by Mr. Woodward. In the discussion that ensued, the Duke of 
Argyle and Mr. Gould expressed their belief, founded on the small 
size and peculiar character of the quill feathers of the wings, that 
the bird could not have possessed the power of flight. Professor 
Owen thought that the size of the furcula, or merry-thought, and 
the development of the ridges on the humerus, which served for 
the attachment of the pectoral muscles, proved the bird to have 
been capable of flight. 


Notes and Memoranda. 389 


NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 


ReEMovING THE Husk From GRAIN.—M. Lemoine adopts a chemical method 
for this purpose. For example, he places 100 kilogrammes of corn in a tub, and 
pours over it 15 kilogrammes of sulphuric acid at 66°, and stirs the mixture for 
fifteen or twenty minutes, then he adds 50 kilogrammes of water, which he decants 
after a few moments’ contact and agitation. The fluid thus removed is reserved 
for a use he promises to explain. ‘he acid is then neutralized by subcarbonate of 
soda or potash, and the grain thrown on a cloth with large meshes, and allowed 
to dry for an hour, after which its dessication is effected on fresh cloths, placed 
in an airy situation for several days. 

Copper Parnt.—The Abbé Moigno describes in Cosmos a new pigment used 
in the workshops of Mr. Oudry, of Auteuil. Its foundation depends upon the 
possibility of reducing electrolytic copper to an impalpable powder, which being 
combined with benzine, can be employed upon any surfaceasa paint. It possesses 
an agreeable lustre, and will take bronze tints by the usual chemical means. By 
reducing the quantity of copper, and adding bases of lead, zinc, or other metals, 
M. Oudry obtains a series of paints said to possess great advantages over those 
prepared with turpentine and ordinary oils. 

WesstEerR'S OxyGEeN Process.—Mr. Pepper describes the new and cheap 
process for making oxygen in the Chemical News. Mr. Webster employs a furnace, 
containing a strong cast-iron vessel ten inches in diameter, and in this a smaller 
vessel seven inches in diameter is placed, open at the top, and provided with an 
orifice at its base, temporarily stopped with a piece of sheet-iron, so that when its 
contents are exhausted, this pot may be removed, and its contents knocked out with 
an iron bar. ‘The outer vessel is connected by a pipe with a 30-gallon stone-ware 
vessel, containing half-a-gallon of water, and eight stone-ware colanders, on which 
A8 lbs. of the residue of a former experiment are placed, and which acts as a 
purifier. The inner pot is charged with 10lbs. warm dry nitrate of soda, and 
20 Ibs. warm dry crude oxide of zine, obtained from the so-called “ galvanizing 
baths.” A cover is then luted on, and the heat employed only sufficient to give a 
pasty character to the mass. Oxygen is speedily given off, accompanied by nitrous 
fumes, which the purifier absorbs. The end of the process is to obtain a large 
quantity of oxygen at asmallcost; but itis mixed with nitrogen to the average 
extent of 41 percent. It is expected that this mixture will prove useful to 
augment the illuminating power of coal-gas, and in various metallurgical processes. 


PLATINO-CYANIDE OF Macnesi1uM.—This beautiful salt exhibits the phenome- 
non of dichroism. In one view it is ruby red, and in another emerald green ; crys- 
tallized on a slide, itis a magnificent object when viewed with the Lieberkuhn, and 
dark well, or side silver reflector. With a little pains great variety of effect can 
be obtamed. The crystals that form at the edges of a drop of its solution often 
make fan-shaped groups of prismatic needles, while the centre is occupied with 
smaller groups arranged in star patterns, or other ornamental shapes. The angle 
of the illumination should be changed while the object is under view. 

ToorH oF OrycTEROPUS CapENsIs.—Mr. Baker, of Holborn, has furnished 
us with a little-known microscopic object of great beauty and interest, in the 
shape of a section of a tooth, which appears to belong to an animal often erro- ° 
neously confounded with the ant-eaters, from which it differs by being furnished 
with grinders and flat nails that are strong and curved. It burrows with great 
facility, and feeds upon ants, which it catches with a long, strap-shaped, protrusile 
tongue, covered with a viscous fluid. The popular name of this creature is 
“sround pig;” the scientific appellation we have given above. It is three or four 
feet long from the snout to the tail, and stands low. Physiologically the teeth 
are beautiful examples of compound structure, resembling that of the Hagle Ray, 
figured in Dr. Carpenter’s book, The Microscope, 3rd edit., p. 704. In man, 
and usually in the higher vertebrates, the centre of the tooth is excavated into a 
single cavity containing the pulp, but in the class of teeth to which that of the 
Orycteropus belongs, the cavities are many, and, as Dr. Carpenter observes, in his 
Manual of Physiology, “we may regard a tooth of this kind as repeating in 
each of the parts surrounding one of these canals the structure of the human 


i] 
j 


390 Notes and Memoranda. 


tooth.” Viewed as an opaque object, or when illuminated by the parabolic 
reflector, the horizontal section of the Orycteropus tooth presents a very elegant 
appearance, which we recommend to the attention of those engaged in ornamental 
design. Both in form and colour it suggests patterns for a tesselated pavement, 
or for fabrics of a fictile or textile kind. 


THe ACARI OF SOLUTIONS.—From a paper read by Mr. Shadbolt, and from 
observations made thereupon at a recent meeting of the Microscopical Society of 
London, it appears that the Acari which occurred in the electrical experiments of 
Mr. Cross and Mr. Weekes, and which have since been found in nitrate of silver 
baths, belong to a species widely diffused. Numbers have been discovered adhering 
to the walls of a room, and they make their way into any fluids that may be 
accessible. Thus the mystery of their origin is cleared up, as it might have been 
long ago, if philosophers had not fancied that their orthodoxy would be com- 
promised by investigating any fact, that for the moment appeared to support the 
theory of spontaneous generation. It is still puzzling to know how they manage 
to exist in solutions of a caustic or poisonous kind, which, to all appearance, 
an contain nothing for them toeat. Mr. Richard Beck exhibited a fine specimen 
under a binocular microscope, and_it closely resembled the Acarus Cross figured 
in “ Noad’s Electricity.” 

AsBEstos Paprr.—Cosmos states that a considerable quantity of paper is 
made in the Northern States of America, containing one-third of amianthus, or 
fibrous asbestos, which is obtained at a very low price. This paper burns with 
flame, but leaves a white residue of the original shape, on which characters that 
were written with common ink can be read. 


ImiraTion OF THE Human Vorce.—“ On the Boulevard de Magenta, Paris, 
a remarkable exhibition has been opened. It consists of an instrument which, 
especially in its upper notes, imitates the human voice so that it might be mistaken 
for it. ‘This instrument, invented by M. Faber, formerly a Professor of Mathe- 
matics in Germany, represents a woman seated, having a larynx constructed 
of caoutchouc upon physiological principles. It has a range of two octaves, and. 
sings any airs with the tone, pitch, and force of a woman’s voice.””—Cosmos. 


75TH ASTEROID.—This body was discovered in September by Dr. Peters, of 
Hamilton College, New York. It looks like an 11 magnitude star. 


CrRcUMPOLAR PLANETS.—M. Radau observes in Cosmos that, like Danae, the 
planet Niobe can become cireumpolar in our latitudes, and that it was so, even for 
Rome, on the 27th October. 


* ‘Tum Merroric Stone or Cuassigny.—M. Damour has analyzed the meteoric 
stone that fell at Chassigny on 8rd October, 1815, and finds it to be essentially 
composed of silica, magnesia, and protoxide of iron, thus bearing a strong resem- 
blance to the precious stone called peridot, and especially to hyalosiderite, “ which 
only differs from olivine in a somewhat smaller proportion of protoxide of iron, 
isomorphous with magnesia.” In physical aspect the Chassigny stone is distin- 
guished from other meteorites by its pale yellow tint; it appears composed of 
voundish graivs, with a vitreous lustre, among which are others of a black tint. 
It scratches glass with difficulty, has a specific gravity of 3°57, contains no nickel 
»nor iron in the metallic state, and it is not magnetic, except in the thin black crust 
that covers it. This latter circumstance M. Damour attributes to the fusion of the 
superficial layer having changed the protoxide of iron into Fe O Fe, O,. He 
remarks that peridot olivine is found in the meteoric iron brought from Siberia by 
Pallas, and in that from the desert of Atacama, in the form of vitreous grains. 
Further details will be found in Comptes Rendus, 13th October, 1862. 


A Buvr Boripr.—M. Enudes-Deslongchamps and his son were in their garden 
at Caen on the 19th September, when the darkness was suddenly lit up by an 
intensely blue bolide, the train of which was white. M. D. states that the blue 
colour was like that produced in fireworks by chloride of copper, and he asks in 
the paper, read before the French Academy, whether the bolide may not have 
contained that metal. 


_Zoviacan Lieur.—The French expedition to Mexico will devote attention to 
this curious appearance, and we notice amongst the papers upon it recently read 


Notes and Memoranda. 391 


before the French Academy, one from M. Heiss, of Munster, who says that his 
sight enables him to see it nearly all the year, and not only in mornings of March 
and evenings of September. He reminds M. Faye, to whom his communication 1s 
addressed, that he has observed with the naked eye 2000 more stars than Arge- 
Jander includes in his Uranometria Nova. 


ARRANGEMENT FoR Carryine Microscopic Onsects.—The injury sustained 
by mounted microscopic objects in being conveyed from place to place, is familiar to 
all microscopists. The source of this injury arises chiefly from the loose manner in 
which the glass slides fit into the containing box, and the consequent shaking they 
receive in their trausit from one place to 
another. To remedy this evil a very suc- 
cessful plan has been devised by Mr. A. H. 
Church ; it is represented in the annexed 
engraving. Attached to the interior of the 
lid of the box, in which the slides are to be 
kept, are a number of small pieces of wood 
about half an inch long and one-eighth ofan 
inch thick, fixed at regular intervals, corre- 
sponding to the spaces between the grooves 
in which the glasses rest. Inside the lid, 
and resting on the rounded tops of these 
little pieces of wood, a piece of silk-covered “elastic” is fastened, from end to 
end, without stretching. If the parts be properly adiusted, the slides will not 
shake when the lid is closed, as each slide presses the India-rubber elastic between 
two of the small studs on the lid, and in this manner is held steadily. The great 
recommendation of the contrivance is the fact thata single slide is as securely 
held as when the box is filled. Microscopists will readily appreciate the advan- 
tage of an arrangement which enables them to carry any number of objects with- 
out producing a continual rattling, and which precludes any liability to displace- 
ment or injury from concussion.. 


PorasH FROM THE ANIMAL Kincpom.—The supply of potash has hitherto 
been solely derived from the vegetable kingdom. Recently, however, M. Mau- 
mené, a French chemist, has obtained it in considerable amount from animals. 
When sheep’s wool is submitted to the action of cold soft water, a kind of greasy 
soap dissolves ; this is a combination of certain fatty and oily acids with the alkali 
potash. It is found that by heating this soap to redness, a very pure carbonate of 
potash is obtained ; this process is so productive that it is worked as a commercial 
speculation at Rheims, and samples of the various potash salts were shown in the 
Tnternational Exhibition. 


New APPricaTions oF ALUMINIUM AND ITs AxLLoys.— Messrs. Bell 
Brothers, of Newcastle, have recently produced a new modification which they 
term “whitened aluminium,” in which the unpleasant zinc-like hue of the metal 
isobviated. They have also formed keys of aluminium, alloyed with two per cent. 
of nickel to increase its hardness. Aluminium bronze is now made of three 
qualities, the first containing ten, the second seven and a-half, and the third five 
. per cent. of aluminium, the residue being copper. These varieties of the bronze 
are scarcely to be distinguished in appearance from gold; their specific gravity, 
however, being rather less than that of copper (8:95), differs remarkably from that 
of the precious metal, the specific gravity of which, when pure, is as high as 19°5. 
From aluminium wire and foil the lighter weights used for chemical purposes, 
may be advantageously made, since occupying something like seven times the 
space of those of platinum, they are more easily adjusted and handled, and less 
likely to be lost. The finest aluminium wire, from its insignificant weight, advan- 
tageously serves to suspend from the beam of the balance, objects the specific 
gravity of which is being ascertained. MM. Collet, of Paris, have constructed a 
chemical balance in which, not the beam only, but every part, down to the 
milled head by which the beam is released, is made of aluminium. 


Tue Reaction or loprnz.—At the September meeting of the Société Hel- 
wetiques des Sciences Naturelles, M. Schénbein pointed out that the proto-chloride 


392 Notes and Memoranda. 


of mercury, and other salts of that metal, had the property of preventing the 
coloration of starch by iodine, which, however, appeared on addition of chloride 
of sodium, sulphate of potash, hydrochloric, hydrobromie, or hydriodic acids. 


THE FORAMINIFERA OF THE ALps.—At the same meeting, Professor Kauff- 
mann stated that the foraminifera which were so abundant in the cretaceous rocks 
of the Alps, resembled those of the same formation in other countries. In order 
to see them well, it was necessary to polish the stone, heat it to a dark red with a 
blow-pipe, gently rub the surface with oil, and view with strong magnification. 
The effect of heating was to bring out the lines of the shells in contrast with the 
stone. When the shells were separated from the chalk, he mounted them in 
Balsam of Tolu, which does not harden, in preference to Canada Balsam. 

DEVELOPMENT OF TuBuLARIA.—At the same gathering, Professor Claparéde 
gave a sketch of the development of hydroida belonging to the genus tubularia. 
On emerging from the egg the embryos resembled the simplest of the naked-eyed 
medusz, although their digestive cavity was a simple sac, which did not give rise 
to gastric canals. They floated passively on the surface of the water, without the 
movements of contraction and expansion that characterized true meduse. From 
the midst of a crown of tentacles sprung a manubriwm (literally handle), as in the 
meduse. This organ exhibited at its extremity a small opening which, by analogy, 
must be considered as a mouth. After the lapse of some days, the top of the 
umbrella elongated, and from its surface arose five little eminences surrounding a 
depression which grew deeper and deeper, and at last constituted a true opening, 
communicating between the digestive cavity and the external world. This was 
the true mouth, and the little eminences were the tentacles in an incipient state. 
At this time the little embryo fixed itself to some body by its manubrium, and gave 
up its wandering life. The manubrium elongated and constituted, the peduncle of 
the young tubularia. The primitive tentacles, which at first were directed down- 
wards, as with the medusee, reversed their position, pointed upwards, and formed 
the crown of the tubularia. 

Formation oF RapxuipEs.—Dr. Reinsch, of Basle, laid before the same body 
his observations on the well-known crystalline deposits or raphides in the tissues 
of vegetables, and especially on those of the root of the Convallaria multiflora. 
He found that when he dissolved, by means of a re-agent, the crystals contained 
in a cell, there remained a membrane of exactly the same form. ‘This membrane 
is coloured an intense yellow by iodine, and appears to have the same constitution 
as the primordial vesicle. 

Vetocity oF Nerve Force.—M. Hirsch exhibited to the same Society an 
apparatus for determining what astronomers call the personal equation of time, or 
the difference which observers make from personal causes in the estimation of 
minute periods. He said, “‘ We have now introduced the electric method into 
astronomical observation, and as the observer has only to shut off the current as 
soon as he sees the bisection of a star, the problem of personal equation consists 
in determining the time which is necessary for the astronomer to see and execute 
the necessary movement of his finger. ‘This time, which we call physiological 
time, consists of three elements: 1. The time occupied in transmitting the im- 
pression to the brain. 2. The time taken by the brain to transform the sensation 
into a volition, and 3, that consumed in transmitting this volition through the 
nerves, and in the execution of the muscular movement.” To ascertain these 
minute periods, M. Hirsch employs the Chronoscope of M. Hipp. A ball is so 
arranged that its fall interrupts an electric current, and thus sets free the motion of 
certain hands. As scon as an observer perceives the fall of the ball, he remakes 
the contact, and arrests the hands, whose motion in the interval gives the physio- 
logical time. By the use of this instrument M. Hirsch has come to the conclusion 
that nerves transmit their impressions at the rate of thirty-four metres a second. 
Mr. Heimholz estimated their velocity at 190 feet per second, but his experiments 
were on the motor nerves of frogs, and those of M. Hirsch on the sensitive 
nerves of man. We have condensed the four preceding paragraphs and this, from 
the Archives des Sciences, and, with reference to the experiments of M. Hirsch, we 
should imagine the rate at which nervous impressions travel would probably vary 
in different individuals, and in the same individual at different times. 


SSW 


CO ee a ee 


ea a Pe 
é t 


Feet of Insects. 


THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, 


JANUARY, 1863. 


THE FEET OF INSECTS. 
BY L. LANE CLARKE. 
(With a Tinted Plate.) 


Ir was suggested to me, some time ago, that a paper on the Feet 

of Insects might be acceptable to the readers of the InTEL- 

LECTUAL OBSERVER; but, somewhat fearing that the subject was 

too well known, from the usual popular exhibitions of the foot 

of a fly or of a spider, I opened my collection of mounted in- 
sects, and began to look more carefully at their feet. 

Small Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera 
were mounted whole, and parts of larger insects gave me 
several remarkable organs of motion. The feet, however, soon 
led the mind upward to the conclusion that, as the mechanism 
of the human hand or foot can only be understood by taking it 
in connection with the whole 
arm or leg, including the 
shoulder-blade and hip joint, 
so the feet of insects require 
an examination of the leg, and 
a knowledge of each joint, in 
order to appreciate the infi- 
nite variety, and perfect adap- 
tation of every part to the 
wants and habits of these “liy- 
ing creatures.” 

I have said that the leg of 
an insect, and the vertebrate 
arm or leg have some resem- 
blance in their composition ; 
the leg is, perhaps, the best 
for comparison. ‘They are 
both divided into four prin- 
cipal parts:—a, coxa, or hip; 0b, femur, or thigh; ¢, tibia, 
or shank; d, tarsus, or foot; a* is an additional small joint, 

* Philos. Trans. 1816, 325, t. xviii. 
VOL. 1,—NO. VI. EE 


394 The Feet of Insects. 


called a trochanter, which is so closely jomed: to the coxa 
as often to have no independent motion, and by some anato- 
mists is considered merely as a part of that joint. 

It is an interesting observation to make, that these joints 
have each been modified and varied, not only in the orders, but 
in the genera, and not in the genera only, but in the species, by 
shape and appendages that none but a careful naturalist can 
discover, but which, once observed, cannot fail to teach that 
pleasant lesson of the mexhaustible power, and infinite con- 
descension of Him to whom indeed nothing is ‘ little,” no work 
too mean or lowly for a proper finish. In the larval, or im- 
perfect state, sects have organs of locomotion, varied and 
curious enough to require a separate paper; the apodous larve, 
or those who walk without legs, have the most astonishing 
powers of progression, by muscular contraction and extension, 
by fleshy prominences, by anal hooks, or the use of mandibles, 
or by circles of spines round every segment of the body. The 
pedate larve, or those that move by means of legs, such as 
caterpillars and grubs of gnats, have spurious legs, tubercles 
armed with claws, retractile mamille; and the larvee of water 
insects have organs appropriate to that element hereafter to be 
described. 

Insects in their full development have six legs; the quasi- 
insects spiders, have eight; woodlice (oniscid@) have fourteen ; 
Iulus maximus, a great centipede has no less than 268; and it 
is a curious fact that a perfect centipede (Lulus terrestris) 
increases the number of its legs at every moult for two years: 
from twenty-six pairs, moulting, and obtaming thirty-six ; 
moulting again, and possessing forty-three; until it prances 
along with 124 short but perfect legs, each terminating in a 
sharp claw. 

Although I consider the whole leg of an insect worthy of 
minute attention, from the mere jomted appendage of a larva 
to the final form so helpful for many purposes—such as 
holding the insect’s prey, cleansing its body, burrowing in the 
earth, building its habitation, or collecting its food—and 
although I cannot help drawing attention to its beautiful struc- 
ture with all its complex machinery of muscles, nerves, and 
circulating fluid for the safe and swift movement of ball and 
socket joints, hinge joints, and rotatory articulation, yet as the 
last joint of the tarsi is usually considered the most imteresting 
part, we shall confine our remarks as much as possible to the 
foot itself. 

The fly, the spider, the cuckoo-spit, and water-beetles will 
furnish us with abundant illustrations of the subject. 


The Feet of Insects. 399 


FOOT OF THE FLY. 


To study this part of our most common insect, and enter into 
the detail of its mechanism, we should possess a microscope of 
moderate power, and some prepared legs of either the Scato- 
phagus, or dung-fly, or Musca vomitoris, or flesh-fly, and with a 
low power look at it as a whole. The tarsal joints are five, in 
all the Diptera ; terminated in the fly by two black, strong claws 
and two Pulvilli, or white semi-transparent lobes, which are 
expansions of a membrane like parchment, apparently delicately 
fringed (fig. 1). These were formerly supposed to be suckers 
moveable in all directions, with a downy, convex surface and 
finely-granulated concave surface, which, being pressed closely 
to the plane of position, the air was supposed to be sufficiently 
expelled to produce the adhesion necessary to keep the fly from 
falling when walking upon glass, wall, or ceilg; the suckers 
contracting and dilating according to necessity. 

Improvement in microscopes and a habit of careful investi- 
gation have led to a further discovery, first by Mr. Blackwall,* 
and then by Mr. Hepworth,* which proves this supposition to 
be an‘erroneous one. 

They have ascertained that the delicate fringe of hair is 
itself the point of attachment, each hair being a minute tube, 
expanding at the tip into a disk or sucker, through which flows 
a viscid fluid, by means of which the fly’s foot is attached to 
any dry surface so firmly as to require the action of those two 
strone claws to detach it again (fig. 1 a). 

It was but a few days ago that I noticed a small house-fly 
jerking in a queer way upon the glass, as if in a fit of St. 
Vitus’s dance, pulling up first one leg and then the other, but 
evidently unable to walk or detach itself from the glass. Upon 
a closer examination with a pocket-lens I saw from the appear- 
ance of certain white rmes round the abdomen that the fly was 
really “very poorly,” attacked with Empusa Muscz—a disease 
to which they are very subject at this time of the year. This is 
an inward malady, arising from the growth of a fungus, which 
eventually consumes the whole viscera, and, doubtless, the 
muscles also, then breaks forth between the segments of the 
body, and the fly is seen sticking to the glass, surrounded by a 
halo of white dust—the spores of this fungus. The fly I was 
observing, weakened, doubtless, by the loss of some muscles, 
and the fluid continuing to flow from its suckers, it had no 
strength to contend with it. 

The muscular power needful for the action of the claws must 
be considerable, when it is remembered that some flies run with 
such swiftness as to take 540 steps in a demi-second—equal to 

* Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science, 1854, vol. u. p. 158. 


396 The Feet of Insects. 


the running of a man at the rate of twenty miles a minute. 
How astonishing, then, are the powers concealed within this 
tiny foot ! 

Nor is it the last jomt of the tarsi only that accomplishes 
this feat; the flexor and extensor muscles, which are external 
to the bone in the claw of a cat, here lie within the crust of an 
insect’s leg, and with their attendant nerves, and the life-giving 
circulation of vital fluid, attain their full development in the 
thickness of the femur, or thigh. Hven as in the human arm 
or leg the fulness of elastic fibre denotes a strong-limbed man, 
so the shape of an insect’s leg will give a pretty correct idea of 
its habits of leaping, or walking, or running; as, for instance, 
the remarkably fast fly, Stenopteryx Hirundinis, which infests 
our poor house-swallow. How robust are its thighs, and how 
strong are the toothed claws—no wonder it springs so deftly 
through, and clings so tightly to the downy feathers of the 
young bird. Beside this leg I have drawn one of the Tipulee— 
long and slender, with small foot and hooked claw, such as is 
best adapted for an insect whose life is on the wing, or who only 
stalks along the grass to deposit its eggs. Observe, also, that 
the Stenopteryx has no large pulvillus; they would greatly im- 
pede this fly in its movements, therefore they are extremely 
small. Compare them with the long, large lobes of the house- 
fly, or Asilus, which have the habit of resting on walls or stems 
of trees (fig. 2); or with the foot of a Leptis—a pretty quiet fly, 
fond of repose in the sunshine of summer, where it is easily 
taken on the bark of forest trees; it has three lobes in each 
pulvillus, and by no means muscular legs (fig. 3). 

The claws of Diptera have many modifications as well as 
the pulvillus. In the month of July, seeing our pony tor- 
mented by a very pretty little piebald fly (Svmulium elegans) 
waving its white-banded fore-legs in an ecstasy of enjoyment as 
it refreshed itself with the warm blood of our “ Black Prince,’’ 
I caught one, and observed its variegated tibia, and that its 
claws were toothed with a small pulvillus, probably for running 
quickly over the horse and clinging to the hair (fig. 4). 

Most of the Tipule, or gnat tribe, have toothed claws; they 
hang upon leaves, they rest upon grass and fern, and cling to 
water-plants or floating fragments on the water whenever they 
are commanded to deposit their egos. The claw of the midge 
(Ceratopogon) is remarkably toothed and curved (figs. 10, 14, 
and 15). This is not the window midge (Psychoda), which 
requires, and las, a larger pulvillus and thicker legs for the 
hopping they indulge in, always zigzag, too, from right to left 
and left to right up the window pane. 

The Ceratopogon are those beautiful but most annoying 
httle gnats who dance in merry companies by river sides and on 


The Leet of Insects. 397 


marshy ground. Some of them are carnivorous, and, like the 
Dolichopus and Himpis, flies who prey upon smaller insects, have 
the thighs armed with spines, as in fig. 13, by which the 
struggles of its prisoner are soon ended. I need not say that 
in this tribe the pulvillus is always very small, and often alto- 
gether absent. 

But whilst we are looking at the foot of a fly, let us not 
pass unheeded the variations in the tarsal joints. Here is the 
leg of a merry little fellow of the Hmpis family (Milara cilipes, 
fie. 13) ; he feeds chiefly on the nectar of flowers, and is easily 
recognized by his dilated fore-metatarsi, but he also enjoys a 
small fly or two, and has a sharp little proboscis on which to spit 
them and leisurely suck their juices. These pretty little Hilara, I 
cannot help talking of them ; they assemble in myriads over the 
running rivulets and the calm bright waters of the Cherwell, 
revolving in horizontal or oblique circles, crossing each other 
In a mazy dance, sweeping away quite suddenly, as if impelled 
or chased by fairy foes, anon returning to their merry sport in 
the summer sunshine. These dilated tarsi belong only to the 
male, and are given that he may restrain the movements of his 
volatile mate. 

Fig. 8 is the leg of Bibeo marci, a very abundant heavy 
black fly, found in meadows round London during the month of 
May, with a remarkable prolongation of the fore-tibia into a sharp 
spine, with which it retains its prey. Another species has a 
perfect coronet of spines round its tibia. 

Kies. 7 and 9 are lees of those flies called Syrphidc, which 
resemble small wasps, and hover over flowers with a peculiar 
vibration of their wings; the curved and toothed femur is for 
some special purpose, [ doubt not, but I cannot tell what it is; 
they are honey-loving insects, and difficult to catch, from 
Springing sideways very quickly. 

I must now conclude a paper that is, I fear, too long already, 
with the foot and leg of a flea. The Pulex wrritans is ranked with 
the Diptera now, though wingless, because of its suctorial 
apparatus allying it to the Gnat family. 

No pulvillus, indeed, does this restless little pest require, 
but it wants muscular power in no ordinary degree to leap 200 
times its length without any aid from wings, and therefore look 
at the long, large coxa, the stout femur, the spiny tibia, and 
strong claws ; not only lobed, and long, and sharp ; but striated 
(fig. 12 c), and crenated, and for hitching in blankets, and 
creeping, and clinging, and tickling,—finished to perfection, 


398 The Heononue Production of Artificial Heat. 


THE ECONOMIC PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL HEAT. 
BY J. W. M‘GAULEY. 


Tus subject is of considerable importance, both in a domestic 
and an industrial pomt of view, but particularly in the latter, 
since the success of a manufacture must be greatly affected by 
the cost at which heat—that is, motive power—is procured. 
The supremacy which Great Britain has attained, as a manu- 
facturing country, is mainly due to the abundance and excel- 
lence of her fuel, and to a skilful application of the advantages. 
it has conferred. We cannot enter into all the details of this 
very extensive inquiry; but we shall lay before our readers. 
some of the most useful facts and most practical deductions 
connected with it. 

The purposes for which artificial heat is required may be 
conveniently divided into two classes: one of them relating to 
domestic economy, and having for its object the preservation 
or production of a proper temperature in apartments, and the 
preparation of food; and the other to the requirements of the 
arts and manufactures. Few climates are so genial as, at no 
part of the year, to demand artificial modes of warming habita- 
tions; none are altogether independent of heat for culimary 
purposes ; and all civilized nations are desirous of promoting 
manufactures, which, when carried on extensively, must, to a 
greater or less extent, depend on the effect derived from heat. 
For, with the steam-engine, heat is really the moving power, 
the water being but a carrier of the forces developed by com- 
bustion, and the steam but the most convenient medium for 
obtaming them. Such an investigation as the present includes. 
also a consideration of the different species of fuel, and their 
most effective application to practical purposes: these various. 
points, therefore, shall more or less be kept in view im what 
we are to say. 

Furi: Wood.—Though a great variety of substances have 
been used at various times, and in different places, as fuel,. 
those almost universally employed are reducible to wood, peat, 
and coal, with their modifications, charcoal and coke. Wood, 
on account of its very general diffusion, and its convenience as 
a heat-giving material, has been always used for the production. 
of artificial heat ; and, for some purposes, it continues to be more: 
suitable than anything else: thus its freedom from sulphur, 
etc., confers upon it superior excellence in the reduction and. 
manufacture of iron. In new countries wood is usually, at first, 
cheap and abundant, from the necessity of clearing the forest ; 
but its price is soon augmented, since the labour required to 


fell it is expensive, and the difficulty of transportation is often 


The Hconomic Production of Artificial Heat. 399 


so great, that it is burned or allowed to rot after having been 
eut down. Hence, the writer has seen in Canada localities sur- 
rounded by forests, and yet supplied with coal, brought from 
the United States by lake and rail, almost as economically, 
as with wood. In old countries, from the great value of land, 
and often from the abundance of coal, the supply of wood is 
very limited. But it might be grown for constructive and en- 
gineering’ purposes, very abundantly in Great Britam and 
still more so in Ireland, if the vast extent of mountain 
and other unproductive land were devoted to it. Not only 
would a large amount of profit be thus secured to the owners, 
but the appearance of the country would be improved, and (on 
account of the changes produced in the atmosphere by growing 
plants) its healthfulness would be augmented. The value of 
wood, where nothing else can be profitably cultivated, and its 
effect in beautifying wild scenery, are not as much remembered 
as they should be. On the continent of Hurope, where it is 
grown in large quantities, the most romantic views derive their 
interest from picturesque and extensive forests. 

Many and valuable experiments have been made on the 
heating powers of the various kinds of fuel; but they can be 
looked upon merely as approximations, since not only the 
varlous species, but the various specimens of the same species, 
differ greatly from each other. The heat-giving power of fuel 
depends on the nature and proportions of its constituents. 
Though it is intimately connected with the quantity of oxygen 
which enters into combination durimg combustion, it would be 
incorrect to assert that a pound of that supporter will cause the 
same amount of heat to be evolved, whatever the substance with 
which it unites; for something depends also on the nature of 
the combustible, since the quantities of heat obtained from dif- 
ferent subtances, with an equal absorption of oxygen, are not 
the same. Thus, hydrogen, during combustion, gives out four 
times as much heat as an equal weight of carbon, though it 
unites with only three times as much oxygen ; and fourteen 
times as much heat as an equal weight of sulphur, though it 
unites with only eight times as much oxygen. Wood, and 
other kinds of fuel, owe their heating capabilities to carbon, 
or to carbon and hydrogen. But the highest duty of a pound 
of carbon may be considered as about fifteen pounds of water 
evaporated, after having been raised to a temperature of 212°; 
and of a pound of hydrogen, as about sixty-two and a half pounds. 
These quantities suppose that all the heat is carried off by the 
waste steam ; but, if the heat of the latter is utilized in any way, 
the theoretical amount of duty is increased. Any oxygen present 
in fuel diminishes the effect derived from the hydrogen, since 
the heat obtained from it is lessened by any portion of it being 


400 The Economie Production of Artificial Heat. 


already in combination with the supporter. One pound of or- 
dinary wood, in a proper condition for burning, will raise about 
twenty-six pounds of water from 0° to 212°, or will evaporate 
four and three-quarter pounds of boiling water; but much de- 
pends on its hygrometric state. 

Peat.—¥ rom the comparatively limited supply of this sub- 
stance, and other circumstances, it might almost be neglected 
in treating of fuels. Its efficiency depends, in a great degree, 
on its compactness and its freedom from earthy matters. The 
former is sometimes artificially increased by pressure: but its 
elasticity is an obstacle to its compression, and the cost of con- 
densing it is considerable ; if, however, its density is sufficient, 
it is applicable to many important processes. The qualities of 
peat are so variable, that while one pound of some kinds will 
raise sixty pounds of water from the freezing to the boiling 
point, one pound of other kinds will not raise twenty pounds of 
water through the same number of degrees; and its calorific 
power when dry is only about half that of the same weight of coal. 
But much depends on the locality in which it is obtamed: good 
Irish peat is twice as effective as the best kinds found in France. 

Coal.—Notwithstanding the enormous quantities of coal 
with which this country is so happily furnished, the period at 
which it superseded wood is not very remote. It is universally 
admitted to be of vegetable origin, but the forms of vegetation 
of which it consists are so imperfectly known, that they afford 
little information as to the state of the earth at the time they 
were produced. In peat, the vegetable matter exists im various 
stages of decomposition: lgnite is evidently the carbonaceous 
residue of forest-trees ; brown coal is vegetable matter in a 
state intermediate between that of wood and bituminous coal; 
semi-bituminous, or ‘‘ steam coal,” is that which is in a state 
intermediate between bituminous coal and anthracite; and the 
latter is bituminous coal from which the gaseous constituents 
have been expelled, most probably by heat, so that many spe- 
cimens of it contain only a small amount of oxygen, and little 
or no hydrogen. The following are, on an average, the chief 
constituents of the substances just mentioned :— 


Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Nitrogen. 

IBeC Cth. users ciinatin' opaslebitne dee 48°89 6:07 43°11 0:93 ¢ 
| (Ob Relktntas cae eet nb a Wie 50°64 6:03 42:05 1:28 
Ubi printers hehe acess 62°80 5:03 23°27 0:00 
Brown Coplie.nasseneeeeeee: 69°74 7:07 9°24, 0:14 
Bituminous Coal ............... 81:60 Epa 7-91 0:39 
Steam Coal mereeernsnccescsecns 85°57 464 2°18 1:03 


sondnncdoppbuDaondsuaddD 89°21 2°48 0°20 0-17 


The Kconomic Production of Artificial Heat. 401 


The chief heat-giving constituent of coal is its carbon, which, 
in the bituminous kinds, varies from sixty-five to ninety-five 
per cent. One pound of good coal willraise about sixty pounds 
of water from the freezing to the boiling point; but small coal 
of the same kind willraise only about forty-five pounds through 
the same number of degrees. Watt was able, on an average, 
to evaporate seven and a-half pounds of water with one pound 
ef coal; and with ordinary boilers, there has not been much 
change in this respect since his time. A cylindrical boiler will 
evaporate only seven pounds; but a “ Cornish” boiler, ten and 
a-quarter pounds ; and a locomotive boiler, with one pound of 
coke, from eight to nine and a-half pounds. If the full effect 
of one pound of coal were obtained, it should evaporate about 
sixteen pounds; but a large portion of the heat usually passes 
off into the chimney. 

Charcoal—As might be expected, equal weights of dry 
charcoal afford equal amounts of heat, at whatever temperature 
it is burned, provided it is changed into carbonic acid by union 
with a sufficient amount of oxygen. One pound of wood char- 
coal will raise about seventy pounds of water from zero to the 
boiling-point : and a cubic foot of charcoal from soft wood weighs 
about eight and a-half pounds, but from hard wood about twelve 
and a-half. One pound of peat charcoal will raise upwards of 
sixty pounds of water from zero to the boiling-point. 

Coke.—This substance is of very different qualities, accord- 
ing to the coal from which it is made, and the mode of its 
manufacture ; oven coke is far the best, gas coke being mere cin- 
der. ‘The density of coke, its most important quality, depends 
on the quantity manufactured at once—since, the greater this 
is, the greater the pressure, and therefore the greater the com- 
pactness of the result ; on the temperature at which it is manu- 
factured—since if this is high enough, the bicarburetted hy- 
drogen evolved will deposit half its carbon on the coke; and on 
the time during which it is kept in the oven—since continued 
heat causes it to contract. One pound of good coke will raise 
sixty-five pounds of water from zero to the boiling-point, while 
one pound of the coal from which it is made will raise only 
sixty pounds through the same number of degrees. 

Heat. Production of heat from fuel—Open fire-places, or- 
stoves, are most usually employed for the purpose of heating 
apartments ; the former are more agreeable, the latter more 
economical. When an open fire-place is properly constructed, 
the effect obtainable from itis sufficient, under ordinary circum- 
stances: but, in cold regions, such as a large portion of North 
America, it would be very ineffective for heating or culinary 
processes ; and hence the almost exclusive use of stoves through 
So great an extent of the New World. They are generally 


402 The Economic Production of Artificial Heat. 


placed far out in the apartments, and their flues are so arranged 
as to traverse a considerable space before entering the chimney, 
that the products of combustion may part with as much heat as 
possible previous to their escape ; for, after the gaseous current 
has ceased to be applied to heating purposes, the heat it con- 
tains 1s totally lost. The whole heating power of the fuel, 
therefore, is not obtained, unless the temperature of its gaseous 
products is lowered to that of the atmosphere; this is impos- 
sible when it is burned in the ordinary way, but the nearer we 
approximate to it the better. The heating of rooms, in very 
cold countries, by stoves, is not only economical and convenient, 
but productive of a pleasmg temperature with great ease when 
their management is understood. All disagreeable smell, and 
other inconveniences—unless the heat is allowed to become 
immoderate—are prevented, by placing on each stove a vessel 
of water for evaporation. Stoves are, however, more suited 
to the use of wood than of coal: the combustion of the latter 
is not so easily regulated, and the soot which it produces is 
more troublesome, though not soinflammable. When reasonable 
care is taken, they are not found very liable to cause accidents by 
fire; nor would insurance companies, in the countries where 
they are used, consider their absence an additional security. For 
culinary purposes, at least with wood, theyare extremely effective, 
convenient, and economical: and, however employed, they con- 
sume much less fuel, for a given heating power, than an open 
fire-place. In the application of heat to the objects of the 
manufacturer, all the discoveries which science has made with 
regard to combustion have been brought into operation. The 
conditions required for perfect combustion are few and simple, 
but they are of the highest importance: a proper supply of 
the supporter must be provided, and it must be mixed with 
the combustible at a sufficiently high temperature. If either of 
these is umperfectly fulfilled, a waste of fuel and the want of a 
proper temperature will be the inevitable consequences. 

It will be useful to notice briefly the chief sources of a waste 
of heat during combustion. Of these, not the least common is 
the presence of hygrometric water in the fuel. This must cause 
a loss of heat, since, as it will certamly be evaporated, its 
amovut is to be deducted from that of the water which otherwise 
would be converted into steam ; or the heat it absorbs must be 
considered as diminishing that which should be applied to the 
object in view. Newly-felled wood often contains fifty per cent. 
of water; and so much of the heat given off by the remaining 
fifty per cent. is consumed in evaporating it, that scarcely any 
useful heat remains. After twelve months, wood may contam 
twenty-five per cent. water: and, if it is kept in a dry place, ten 
per cent, which, if expelled artificially, will be re-absorbed from 


iw 


The Heonomic Production of Artificial Heat. 403, 


the atmosphere. Beech contains the least, and fir the most 
moisture. The peat of commerce frequently contains twenty- 
five per cent. water, and when carefully dried, at least ten per 
cent. Coal usually contains one or two per cent., but very 
much more if exposed to the atmosphere and rain, particularly 
when it is in dust or small pieces. By exposure to the air, char- 
coal absorbs at least ten per cent. water, which causes flame 
during its combustion, the water being decomposed, and car- 
buretted hydrogen formed. In wet weather coke will absorb 
seven per cent. of water. It is clear that, in purchasiug fuel by 
weight, its hygrometric water may seriously affect the quantity 
in reality obtained, and therefore its commercial value. 

Primage and leakage cause heat to be wasted. The former, 
which consists in water bemg mechanically suspended in the 
steam—not to speak of its other inconveniences—involves a 
loss of the heat expended in raising such water from the tem- 
perature of the feed to that of the issuing steam. The less 
pure the water in the boiler, on account of mud or greasy 
matter, the more rapid the evaporation, the greater the loss 
from this source: and hence the primage is greater with loco- 
motive than with fixed boilers. Keeping the boiler clean, 
and allowing the steam a sufficient space for deposition of the 
water, reduce the waste, from this cause, almost to nothing. 
Leakage of water or steam leads to a waste of all the héat car- 
ried off by the water or steam which escapes. 

The heat required to produce a draught in the chimney is 
another source of loss, the amount of which depends on the 
quantity of gaseous matter passing off, and the temperature at 
which it is emitted. The minimum of quantity is the transmis- 
sion of just so much air through the furnace as will burn the 
fuel; and the minimum of temperature is that which exceeds, 
by only a few degrees, the temperature of the water, which is 
being converted into steam ofthe required pressure. The tem- 
perature at which the products of combustion cease to act on 
the boiler, or other body to be heated, is a matter of consider- 
able importance: and any loss arising from it is dependent on 
the elevation of temperature of the waste products, and on their 
weight and specific heat. Jt is not unusual for these to pass off 
at a temperature of 600°; and this, with twice as much draught 


ag is necessary, would cause a loss of nearly twenty-seven per 


cent. of the whole heat. A diminished draught, by raising the 
temperature of the products of combustion, increases the heat 
of the escape current also; and therefore a dimimution of 
the draught to a nearer correspondence with what theoretically 
may be required, does not economize the heat as much as might 
at first be supposed. But the loss from this latter cause does not 
counterbalance the advantage, since the higher the temperature 


404 The Econonue Production of Artificial Heat. 


of a body, the more. capable it is of heating another; the 
capacity, therefore, of that other for heat is practically creased. 
When the capacity of a boiler for absorbing heat is augmented, 
its size may be diminished ; and hence, a proper draught will 
render a smaller boiler sufficient, or will leave more of a larger 
to take up the residue of the heat after its first violence is 
expended. For, one square foot of boiling-heating surface, 
with a suitable draught, will produce as much effect as five 
square feet of equally efficient surface, when the draught is four 
times what it should be. The difference between the heating 
effect of a well-regulated and an excessive draught is very great ; 
for, while the one will produce a temperature of 3000° and up- 
wards, the other may not afford one of 2000°: a httle seeming 
waste, in producing the former is, therefore, real economy. 
The draught may, however, be so violent, as not to allow time 
for the heat to be imparted to the boiler; or it may be so lan-’ 
guid as, in certain cases, to be attended with inconvenience, 
and even danger. ‘Thus, if the temperature of a chimney or 
flue is not sufficiently high, the carbonic acid which is formed 
by combustion, and which is one and a-half times as heavy as 
common air, will flow backwards. By a certain arrangement of 
an American stove, a small quantity of wood may be kept 
smouldering for the whole night: this is a convenient way of 
maintaining a moderate temperature without any trouble or 
attendance; but im sleeping apartments 1t1s not unaccompanied 
by danger. 

Conduction of heat, from the boiler to the surrounding solids, 
and radiation from its surface, are also causes of heat being 
wasted. Locomotive boilers are particularly subject to these 
inconveniences ; and the evil is much greater when the cylinders 
are outside. ‘The excellence of what is termed a “ Cornish” 
boiler, consists, almost exclusively, in the care with which it is 
insulated by felt, brick, and other non-conductors of heat. 

Finally, heat is lost by the passing off of wncombined fuel. 
This may occur mechanically, from fuel being dropped among 
the ashes, which must happen if the coal is small, or if the 
distance between the bars is too great: they must not, how- 
ever, be so close as to prevent a proper supply of air. Some 
kinds of coal break down with great rapidity during transmis- 
sion, and even m the very steamers in which they are used ; 
and some, from the water which is chemically combined with 
them, split up and fall to powder when heated. Waste from 
uncombined fuel may occur also from the production of smoke ; 
that is, from incomplete combustion. The prevention of visi- 
ble smoke has for a long time occupied the attention of men 
of science. It is indispensable to the economical application 
of fuel; because smoke consists of carbon and other matters, 


The Economic Production of Artificial Heat. 405 


which are a most effective portion of the combustible, and 
which, if allowed to escape into the atmosphere, are totally 
wasted. When the combustion is imperfect soot will be formed 
with a part of the carbon, and, instead of carbonic acid, car- 
bonic oxide may be evolved. The hydrogen also, in place of 
beige burned, may form hydrocarbons, such as carry vapours, 
and pass off; or it may escape without having entered into any 
combination. In all these cases a large amount of the heat 
which should be derived from the fuel is lost. Smoke is not 
only a loss to the manufacturer, but an injury and an annoyance 
to the neighbourhood, by rendering it less healthy and less 
agreeable ; hence, the manufacturer is obliged, by Act of Parlia- 
ment, to “ burn his smoke.”? Burning it, is enough to prevent 
inconvenience to others; but preventing it, would be more 
advantageous to himself, since carbonaceous matters combine 
with oxygen much more readily when they are in the nascent 
state. Smoke will certainly be consumed, if its constituents 
are mixed with oxygen in proper quantities, and at a proper 
temperature. Atmospheric air contains, by weight, twenty- 
three per cent. oxygen ; and sixty cubic feet may be considered 
to afford one pound of it. Hydrogen requires for combustion 
eight times its weight of oxygen ; and carbon two and two-third 
times its weight. One pound of hydrogen, therefore, absorbs 
the oxygen of four hundred and eighty cubic feet of atmos- 
pheric air; and one pound of carbon, that of one hundred and 
sixty cubic feet. The carbon is believed to be capable of giving 
to the products of combustion a temperature of 4400° Fahr. 
if its combustion is perfect, and some of the heat is not carried 
away by excessive draught. 

Since the compounds of carbon and hydrogen are found to 
afford the same amount of heat as their constituents, it is not 
necessary, In examining the effects which ought to be expected 
from hydrocarbons, to consider each of them separately ; it is 
enough if the nature and amount of the elements of which their 
ageregates consists, are ascertained. Compounds of carbon 
and hydrogen are usually decomposed by the high temperature, 
before they are burned ; then, hydrogen having the greatest 
affinity for oxygen, first combines with it, liberating the carbon ; 
the carbon, if there is enough of oxygen, with a sufficiently high 
temperature, afterwards forms carbonic acid; but if there is a 
deficient supply of oxygen, the carbonic acid takes up another 
atom of carbon, becoming carbonic oxide: in which case as 
much heat per pound of carbon, is carried off as would raise 
10,100 lbs. of water one degree Fuhr. The blue flame which 
surrounds the opening, and plays over the fuel, when the door 
of a locomotive furnace is opened, arises from the extra supply 
of air changing what was passing off as carbonic oxide into car- 


4.06 Lhe Economic Production of Artificial Heat. 


bonic acid ; and the flame seen at the top of a chimney is due to 
the same cause. Perforating the furnace door partially prevents 
this waste. Since the elements of coal, coke, ete., exist in the 
solid form, in changing to the gaseous state they absorb a large 
amount of the heat derived from previous combustion ; and the 
gaseous products of combustion carry off so much heat, that it is 
believed their volatilization consumes as much of it as is given 
out by their combustion: hence, there is reason to doubt that 
the effect of any coal containing hydrogen is greater than that 
of its carbon; and it has been found that coal containing the 
smallest quantity of gases, 1s, practically, the most effective as 
a heat-producer. When coal contains hydrogen, the resulting 
water forms double its volume of steam. 

We may err by having too great as well as too small a 
supply of air. Ifthe latter 1s in excess, the heat being dispersed 
througha greater quantity of matter, the temperature obtained 
is less than it should be. When twice the proper quantity 
of air is admitted, the temperature of the products of com- 
bustion will be only about 2300°, or little more than half 
what might be expected; yet five, and even ten times the 
proper amount is often supplied to the fuel. We must not, 
however, confine ourselves to the theoretical quantity, since 
only about two-thirds of what is sent into the furnace comes 
in contact with the combustibles. 

Various means have been devised for the consumption of 
smoke. It is not enough to increase the height of the chimney: 
this would indeed augment the draught, but would produce little 
other effect than the diffusion of the nuisance over a wider 
space. Among the most effective means that have been 
employed, is mixing air with the smoke. When fuel is put on 
the dead plate, so that it may be coked, and its volatile consti- 
tuents mixed with air may pass over the fuel which is at a 
high temperature, air is required adove the fuel. If this is cold, 
on account of being drawn directly from the atmosphere, not 
only is the bottom of the boiler lowered in temperature, and the 
generation of steam in consequence diminished, but the smoke 
is not all destroyed. It has been attempted to obviate these 
inconveniences by supplying the required air through tubes 
passing down within the chimney; but this, by cooling the con- 
tents of the latter, diminishes the draught, and thus affects the 
supply of the supporter of combustion. When, as with coke, 
or cinders of any kind, the combustion is confined to the fuel 
on the grate, air is not required above; yet such is the neglect, 
not unfrequently observed, that the same draught may be some- 
times found with every kind and quantity of fuel. 

When the waste steam was first thrown into the chimney 
of locomotives, it was found that the draught was enormously 


The Economie Production of Artificial Heat. 407 


increased. This principle, in a modified form, has been applied 
to the consumption of smoke: for which purpose a small quantity 
of steam is thrown into the forepart of the furnace, above the 
fuel, by a fan-shaped distributor, having a few small apertures ; 
and the instant the steam is turned on through the flame and 
smoke, the latter disappears. ‘The cause of this extraordinary 
effect is not certainly known. Some consider that the steam 
merely carries the air mechanically to the fuel; others, that the 
steam is decomposed by the carbonaceous matter of the smoke 
at a high temperature, carbonic oxide and hydrogen being pro- 
duced ; and that the combustion of these angments the amount 
of heat evolved. The latter supposition is apparently confirmed, 
by the fact that more water is sometimes evaporated than can 
well be ascribed to the fuel: in which case, it would seem rea- 
sonable to attribute some of the effect to combustion of the 
hydrogen; but whatever heat is given out by the burning 
hydrogen must have been first obtained from the fuel itself, 
since exactly the same amount of heat is required to decompose 
water, as is afterwards evolved during the recomposition of its 
elements. ‘The steam increases the draught to such a degree, 
that its foree must be diminished by side openings in the chim- 
ney, or other means; and hence, supplying air for combustion 
by tubes passing down through the chimney ceases to be injuri- 
ous; and the chimney may be made smaller and lower. Since 
with this contrivance no air passes through the ash-pit, com- 
bustion takes place altogether on the surface of the fuel ; and 
the absence of smoke causes the heat to be radiated more 
directly, and, therefore, more effectually, on the bottom of the 
boiler. 

We have now briefly alluded to the best modes of using the 
more ordinary kinds of fuel; and, from the great difference 
between the amount of heat obtained in practice and that 
which theory would lead us to expect, it can easily be imagined 
how much yet remains to be done in this department of practical 
science. ‘The separate condensation of steam, invented by 
Watt, and the application of the principle of expansion, by 
Woolf and Hornblower, greatly augmented the dynamical value 
of fuel; and yet the mechanical effect obtamed from even the 
best condensing expansive engine is many times less than it 
would be if, according to the received “ mechanical equivalent 
of heat,’ the whole heat were changed into work. The locomo- 
tive, from its peculiar position, is, perhaps, least favourably 
circumstanced, so far as relates to the economy of fuel; yet, 
with all the sources of waste to which it is exposed, it will do as 
much work with one pound of coke as a good non-expansive 
condensing engine with a pound of coal, and more than twice 
as much as a good high-pressure stationary engine with the 


408 Quetelet on the Electricity of the Air. 


same. ‘Theoretical and practical results will, it is true, never 
entirely correspond, but they should be much more nearly alike 
than they ever yet have been. Whatever improvements have 
at any time been effected in the economy of fuel, have originated 
in a careful and rational application of the physical laws which 
relate to combustion, and of those on which the doctrine of heat 
is founded. Apparent trifles, such, for instance, as insulation 
of the boiler by non-conductors of heat, accommodation of the 
draught to the nature and quantity of the fuel, etc., have been 
the cause of very important saving on the item of fuel; and 
whatever good shall be hereafter effected in the same direction, 
will be due to a like judicious application of the practical know- 
ledge with which experience and research shall have furnished us. 


QUETELET ON THE ELECTRICITY OF THE AIR. 


In his important work, Sur la Physique du Globe, M. Quetelet 
gives a voluminous account of the electrical observations made 
under his superintendence at Brussels, and devotes one section 
to an explanation of the distribution of the electricity of the 
air, which cannot fail to interest our readers, and which we 
therefore present to them in a condensed form. 

M. Quetelet remarks, that were it not for the existence of 
other bodies in celestial space, the terrestrial atmosphere would 
scarcely experience any electrical changes. He further tells us 
that the sun must be regarded as the chief exciting and dis- 
turbing cause. He regards our atmosphere as divided into 
two layers; the upper one, ».p., “nearly immoveable in all its 
parts, the lower one, p.n., constantly traversed and stirred up 
by winds.” ‘The upper layer he considers is also divided into 
two portions: the one negative, n., equilibrates the positive 
electricity, v., of the sun, and of the surrounding space ;* and 
the other positive, p., acts through the lower stratum of air, and 
equilibrates the negative electricity of the earth, Nn. ‘The posi- 
tive and negative electricities of the upper regions of the atmo- 
sphere are kept apart by the extreme dryness which must prevail 


+ M. Quetelet adds in a note, “ If it is objected that the electricity of the sun 
traverses the void without resistance, and that its fluid ought to unite with the 
fluid of the opposite nature which we suppose to exist in the exterior layer of the 
atmosphere, we might without difficulty admit this hypothesis, and our explana- 
tion would be simplified. There would, in fact, remain only the positive elec- 
tricity below the superior envelope of our atmosphere, which would paralyze on 
one side the negative electricity of the sun, and on the other would act through 
the inferior envelope and paralyze the negative electricity on the surface of the 
globe. We must then admit that the electricity of the sun and the earth are of 
the same kind, 


Quetelet on the Hlectricity of the Air. 409 


there. In the lower stratum absolute dryness does not exist- 
It is more or less moist, constantly disturbed, and traversed, 
although with considerable difficulty, by the positive electricity 
which can at times unite with the opposite electricity of the 
earth ; but these never exist in intimate connection. The 
action is hke that of two conductors charged with opposite 
electricities and placed at a distance: ‘ the opposite fluids tend 
to unite through the more or less moist air that is interposed, 
but their charges remain the same. If the losses are constantly 
renewed, the positive fluid of the upper layer gives rise to all 
the electrical phenomena that we observe upon our globe. 


Being partially retained by the dryness and relative immo- 
bility of the stratum in which it finds itself, it operates through 
the lower stratum, which is always agitated and always more 
or less humid, and partially paralyzes the electricity indicated 
by our instruments on the surface of the globe.” 

In our northern hemisphere, the electricity is stronger in 
winter than in summer. ‘The layer of the atmosphere that is 
constantly disturbed is not so thick at this season, and thus we 
are closer to the upper layer. In the course of a year, this 
augmentation of electricity and diminution of height becomes 
very apparent; between June and January, or December, the 
variation is as much as 1 to 10. Nor is the diurnal variation 
less noticeable, “‘ the electricity becomes stronger towards the 
approach of night, and its minimum occurs a little after the 
hours of strongest heat during the day. It is towards three 
o’clock p.m. in the summer time, that the electrified layer which 
acts upon our instruments appears to be furthest removed from 
the earth.” It should also be remembered that as heat aug- 
ments, and the air becomes drier, its conducting power is 
diminished. During the night the solar action is insensible, 
and the variation is much less, and that which occurs appears 
to be the result of changes in the opposite atmosphere. 

M. Quetelet observes that we have no precise ideas of the 
absolute force of electricity, and that we do not know whether 

VOL. II.—NO. VI. FE 


410 Quetelet on the Electricity of the Air. 


its intensity is greater in the north than in the south, although. 
if the upper stratum of the air is not so high, the electricity 

must be stronger, as seems to be shown by the auroras. 

“The earth is generally regarded as solid throughout all its. 

extent, although many physicists consider that it is only solid 

in its exterior portion. They say, and as we think with reason, 

that the interior portion, in a state of greater or less fluidity, 

may have its own movements, which may occasion magnetic 

variations, and also the electric variations that are intimately 

connected with them.” 

The great laws of the distribution of atmospheric electricity 
are often masked by secondary causes. Thus, especially during 
the summer, we notice the formation of strata of clouds car- 
rying an electricity which M. Quetelet denominates accidental, 
and which gives rise to storms. ‘These clouds may be the 
origin of hail, which finds itself attracted and repelled by the 
upper stratum of the air, until it falls by force of gravity,” or 
there may be a direct electrical action upon the earth in the shape 
of storms. Negative electricity is more frequent in the atmo- 
sphere during the summer, the space between the earth and 
the stationary portion of the atmosphere being then greater, 
and also bemg drier and better able to accommodate clouds 
which assume ‘‘a supplementary electricity.” The tranquil 
passage of electricity towards the earth is more frequent in 
winter, but in the summer, by reason of the greater dryness, it 
is less continuous and more violent. Thunder-storms are more 
common in summer than in winter, but those of the latter sea- 
son are often extremely dangerous. One, for example, in the 
winter of 1860, struck twenty clock towers within the limits of 
Belgium, and in the course of a few hours ; and in the night of 
April 14th, 1718, twenty-four towers were struck in France, 
along the coasts of Brittany. ‘Summer storms are usually less 
destructive on the surface of the earth, and their action limited 
to a smaller space. Winter storms act over a wider range. 

M. Quetelet gives numerous details of the great storm of 
the 19th February, 1860, to which allusion has just been made, 
and which surpassed in violence any ever known to have 
occurred in Belgium. It began on the evening of the Sunday’ 
in question, and followed the route usually taken by such 
scourges in that country. About seven o’clock it burst over 
Rolleghem and Courtroy ; an hour afterwards it reached Ghent, 
Brussels, and the neighbourhood of Antwerp; and by nine it 
was at Liege, carrying devastation as it went, and increasing 
in force. Hail, rain, and snow fell at various places during its 
passage, several of the churches upon which the lightning fell 
were set on fire; the wind was tempestuous, and the thunder- 
peals extremely loud. The barometer was strongly depressed, 


The Sea Lamprey. Alt 


and the thermometer experienced considerable oscillations. 
M. Duprez, commenting on this alarming visitation, states that 
fourteen out of twenty-two cases of buildings being struck 
resulted in fires, and that the only edifice which was provided 
with a lightning-conductor suffered no damage. M. Quetelet 
adds that, in his statistics of buildings or vessels struck by 
lightning, he found that out of a hundred and sixty-eight cases 
in which lightning-conductors had been struck, only twenty- 
seven, by reason of grave defects in their formation, had failed 
to exercise a preservative power. 

The average annual allowance of thunder-storms for Bel- 
gium is fifteen or sixteen, and they are twenty-one times more 
numerous in summer than in winter. The annual number for 
a particular locality will vary considerably, bemg four times as 
many in some years asin others, while fifteen or twenty leagues 
away, the average has not been changed. In our northern 
countries winter storms, while the sun is below the equator, 
are usually formed between the clouds and the earth; those m 
summer, when the sun is above the equator, are formed in a 
higher region between the clouds and the stationary layer of 
the atmosphere, and they have less tendency to strike elevated. 
objects. ‘Their region of action is often very limited, extending 
over only a few leagues. The velocity of the movement of 
thunder-storms equals that of the most rapid winds. 


TA SB A AMP ROBY 
(Petromyzon marinus). 


BY JONATHAN COUCH, F.L.S. 
(With a Coloured Plate.) 


Tue large Sea Lamprey is one of the most remarkable of fishes, 
both as regards its organization and habits; and as such, 
without appearing to have done so, it has obtaimed special 
notice, as well among the ancients as moderns. But as actual 
and close observance of the forms of the inhabitants of the 
ocean for the purpose of scientific distinction was not much 
practised im ancient times, some curious mistakes were com- 
mitted about it by writers of remote date; most of whom, at 
least those whose works have come down to us, must have 
written from the imperfect information which they had gathered 
from common sources; and in dome this they appear to have 
felt the greater readiness to receive it in the proportion that it 
was strange and mysterious. 

It was commonly believed that there was a fish called the 


A12 The Sea Lamprey. 


Naucrates, Remora, or Hcheneis, which, when it pleased, laid 
hold of a ship, and by means of a magical power which. it 
possessed, and which was inscrutable by human intellect, and 
therefore above being reasoned on, it was able to arrest its 
progress in the midst of its most onward course, and thus 
fix it stationary m the middle of the ocean. Ordinary obser- 
vation had shown that the lamprey was in the habit of lay- 
ing hold of a ship so firmly as not to be easily separated from 
it; and without attending to the difference in the mode. of 
acting, by what seemed a natural process of reasoning they 
drew the conclusion that where the action was so much alike 
the fishes themselves must be the same. These dissimilar fishes, 
therefore, the Remora and Lamprey, became confounded toge- 
ther, and that, indeed, to such an extent, that when taken in 
the sea there is reason to believe that the lamprey lost, if 
it ever possessed, a specific name; which circumstance will 
help to explain how it happens that there does not appear to 
be any direct mention of it in the natural history of Phuny, 
although the fish itself is common in the Tiber. The fact, 
however, of the knowledge of this fish by the ancients, with 
the uncertainty arising from confounding it with the Remora, 
Naucrates, or Hcheneis, appears with little doubt, from the 
description which Oppian gives of the last named species. His 
reference to its teeth is decisive in this respect, for these organs 
in the Naucrates are scarcely perceptible, and certainly are not 
employed in the action which rendered this fish so famous :— 


“Slender his shape, his length a cubit ends ; 
No beauteous spot the gloomy race commends ; 
An eel-like clinging kind, of dusky looks ; 
His jaws display tenacious rows of hooks. 
But in strange power the puny fish excels, 
Beyond the boasted art of magic spells.— 
The sucking fish beneath with secret chains 
Clung to the keel the swiftest ship detains.” 


When, however, the lamprey had come under the notice of 
another class of observers in its yearly migration ito fresh 
water, its marine practices were forgotten or unknown, and it 
assumed a name according to the likeness it was supposed to 
bear to some more familiarly-known fish. Ray, in his little 
work, Nomencletor Classicus, very properly finds fault with 
those Hnelish writers, especially the poets, who translated the 
Latin name of the fish Murzna, by the English term Lamprey, 
which John Jones, the translator of Oppian, always does, 
although these fishes are different in every respect. But we have 
already remarked that scientific differences were little thought 
of by the generality of the ancients. It was sufficient for them 
that there was some, although a distant resemblance ; and in 


The Sea Lamprey. 413 


the present imstance of the Murzena this resemblance, as re- 
garded the shape, was thought sufficiently close to warrant 
the transfer, with some little qualification, of the name of one 
of these fishes to the other. Rondeletius is sufficient authority 
for saying, that the sea lamprey was sometimes called Murena 
simply, or Murena fluviatilis, the River Mureena, which he 
distinguishes by an anatomical difference in the head from the 
Murena of the sea; and he thinks the comparison of one with 
the other not amiss. There is much probability also in the 
opinion that it is the lamprey which is mentioned by Ausonius, 
under the name of Mustellax, although Cuvier has said that the 
Burbolt is the species intended by this Roman poet. The im- 
portant fact, however, of its migrating habit from salt water, 
which he refers to, and which is not a character of the Burbolt, 
and the description of its colour, appear sufficient to decide the 
question :— 


** All through the ponds of Ister’s double name, 
Frothing the surface, the Mustella came ; 
Watched by observant eyes it holds its way, 
And safely shelters in our favoured bay ; 
Bringing new riches to the wide Moselle ; 
And its bright beauties who can paint or tell? 
On breadth of heavenly blue are dots of black, 
Hach circled yellow through the luscious track 
Along the slippery surface of its back. 
From head to vent it suits the nicest taste, 
But all behind is dry, and thrown to waste.” i 
Ausonius’s Moselle. 


The fact that the Burbolt is still called Motella in some 
parts of France will weigh but little when we call to mind how 
common it is for different sorts of fishes to bear the same name, 
as also that the same fish is known by several names in different 
parts of the same country. 

This species of lamprey is often taken in the sea, but always 
under peculiar circumstances, which have reference to remark- 
able instinctive habits ; and these, again, are worthy of notice 
as offering explanation of the use of the curious structure of its 
mouth, and of the organization which serves it for the purpose 
of breathing. This remarkable structure we shall by and by 
describe, but at present it is sufficient to say, that the mouth, 
when open, forms an expanded disk, round the deepest portion 
of which there is an arrangement of rasping teeth; and these 
the fish has the power, however difficult it may appear, of 
bringmg into contact with any surface on which it chooses to 
lay hold.. By an exhausting action through which the air and 
water are removed, a vacuum is produced; and thus the fish 
becomes fixed without any further exercise of muscular action. 
The bottom of a ship or boat is frequently the object to which 
it attaches itself, and it becomes a question what is the inten- 


Rh ER 
t 


414. The Sea Lamprey. 


tion kept in view in thus affixing itself; which it does so firmly, 
indeed, that the utmost strength of a man is often unequal to 
the task of removing it. ‘he object may be no greater than to 
relieve itself from further exertion Im swimming, and, as in the 
instance of the true Remora, to be conveyed to a longer dis- 
tance with the least expenditure of strength. It may also be 
with the hope of feeding on the flesh of an animal, for which it 
has mistaken the ship, according to what we know of its pro- 
pensities under other circumstances ; but it is affirmed by Ron- 
deletius that it is also with the intention of devouring the pitch 
with which the ship has been payed, or coated, and for which it 
has been supposed to feel an appetite. Such was the opinion, 
at least, formerly entertained by the fishermen of Marseilles ; 
and strange as it may appear, a similar opinion has been ex- 
pressed in England by a witness im an inquiry by a parlia- 
mentary commission on the salmon fisheries, in the year 1861. 
It was then shown that under peculiar circumstances, not only 
salmon, but lampreys also, tasted strongly of tar. The witness 
said, “‘ We asked the fishermen about it, and they told us that 
there was a little ripple of tar coming down into the Severn, 
and that must have been the reason (with the salmon). We 
were rather angry with the fishermen, and then thought they 
had put these salmon into a boat where tar had been emptied ; 
but they said no, the tar in the river must have been the reason. 
‘We had two lampreys returned that tasted very badly of tar ; 
we found out the reason of that. Lampreys have mouths lke 
suckers, and live by suction; and they will suck tightly to any- 
thing. The boats had been newly tarred, and these lampreys 
sucked on to the boat, and from that they were all tar. Jam 
quite certain that the lampreys did not get the tar out of the 
water, but out of the boat. ‘These tarred fish were confined to 
one year.” 

It is not so certain, however, that the vegetable tar attracts 
these fish as that coal tar drives them away; and accordingly 
it has been noticed that since the sea-going boats have em- 
ployed the latter no lampreys have laid hold upon them. 

But there is another use to which the mouth is applied, con- 
cerning which no doubt can exist, and by which the smgular 
situation and armature of the ‘teeth are to be explained. ‘The 
whole of the interior arch of the mouth is studded with rows of 
teeth, each one of which, on a broad base, is furnished with one 
or two apparently reversed points; and these teeth which are 
most remote and concealed are larger than others, and more 
effectually crowded with these points. For simply bitmg they 
are useless; but when the breadth of the mouth is brought 
into contact with the surface of a fish on which the lamprey has 
laid hold, by producing a vacuum these roughly-pointed teeth 


The Sea Lanprey. 415 


are brought forward so as to be able to act on it by a circular 
motion ; and a limited space of the captive prey is thus rasped 
into a pulp and swallowed, until a hole is made which may 
perhaps penetrate to the bones, and from the torture of which 
the most strenuous exertion of the victim cannot deliver it. 
The most active fishes are subject to this infliction, and on none 
have I found it more frequent than on the mackerel, although 
the gurnard, coal-fish (fawning Pollack), cod, and haddock, 
have been also the subjects of attack. It might be supposed 
that death would be the imevitable fate of fishes which have 
been thus dealt with; but I have seen some that have borne 
the mark of having been thus fed on, which after having perhaps 
satisfied the appetite of their foe have survived to have the 
wound healed, although not without an enduring mark. In 
repeated instances a lamprey which did not exceed six or 
seven inches in length has been caught 
while still adhermeg firmly to the body 
of a mackerel; a circumstance which 
happens most frequently in the spring of 
the year. It isin the spring, and with 
us about April and May, that the lam- 
prey is ready to deposit its spawn, for 
which purpose it seeks the fresh water 
of the deepest of our rivers. I have had 
it brought to me from the sea with the roe 
enlarged on the 11th of April, and also 
in the middle of May; but im Holland, 
Ruysch says it is so early as February, s,. youth of the Petro- 
and im Scotland Sir Wilham Jardine as- myzon marinus. 
signs it to June, and thenceforward 

so late as to the end of August. It is at this its first entry 
into the rivers that the fishery is entered upon for taking it. 
The Severn has long been celebrated for this fishery, and 
for the excellency of the lampreys taken in it. Indeed, it is 
not known that this fish is much sought after in any other river; 
and even there so fluctuating is the taste of epicurism, that 
within a few years the sale of it has much declined. They are 
fished for mostly in the night, and from thirty to forty are 
regarded as a successful adventure, at the price of a shillme to 
eighteenpence for each fish. But it was held of higher value 
im remote times, and an often quoted instance in Hnglish His- 
tory is a proof that it was once deemed a favourite dish at the 
table of a king. The death of Henry I. was caused by his 
having indulged too freely in a dish of potted lampreys. The 
value set on the lamprey is also shown by the fact that 1t was 
thought a not unfitting present to be sent by the king to a 
subject of high rank. King John sent one lamprey to the Harl 


A416 The Sea Lamprey. 


of Chester, and the honour of the gift was acknowledged by the 
present of a good palfrey in return. It was an old custom for 
the Corporation of the City of Gloucester to present to the 
reigning sovereign a pie of lampreys yearly, but it appears that 
this custom has. ceased to exist ; an end probably having been 
put to it on the occasion of the passing of the Reform Bill. In 
the last century also a lamprey-pie was sent by the Corporation 
of the same city to the Prince of Wales. As this kind of lam- 
prey enters rivers for the purpose of spawning in the spring, 
so this is also the season of its highest perfection ; but imme- 
diately after the discharge of the roe, so great a change in this 
respect takes place, that they are not only weakened and 
emaciated, but it has been believed they are so far from 
recovering their former condition that even death is the result. 
In the sea this fish is said to be worthless for the table. 
However, that this last supposition is not correct appears from 
the fact, that while in May, twelve months perhaps from their 
birth, they are often found not to exceed six or eight inches in 
length, some examples are met with which measure more than 
thirty inches, and which therefore we may conclude to have 
experienced the growths of several seasons, and consequently 
to have passed through more than one or two of those in which 
the spawn is deposited. 

The mode of proceeding by which a procreant bed is pre- 
pared for the reception of this treasure affords an insight into 
another use to which the sucking faculty of the mouth can be 
applied. Both sexes unite in preparing the ground; and as in 
the process of doing this it may happen that stones of com- 
paratively considerable size are in the way, the mouth is a prin- 
cipal instrument employed in the labour of removing them, so 
that the grains of roe may be covered by only alighter sand. The 
mouth is applied to the surface of a stone, and by a strenuous 
effort it is carried to a distance until every difficulty of this sort 
is removed out of the way. Soon after spawning the parent 
fish return to the sea. 

This fish imhabits a variety of climates except the very 
warm ; being found in the Mediterranean, where those of the 
Tiber are said to be of large size; and in the north of Europe, 
where it is mentioned by Nilsson as common in the Baltic and 
North Sea. It is said also to be met with in North America. 
It is retentive of life, and so may be carried alive to a considerable 
distance if sometimes dipped in water. 

The genus Petromyzon, to which the lamprey belongs, is 
distinguished by having the mouth formed of a wide opening 
without distinct jaws; an aperture on the top of the head which 
communicates with the gills, the spiracles or outlets of which 
are seven in number. Pectoral and ventral fins none. 


“AGUMNVT VAS 


The Sea Lamprey. 417 


The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is specifically dis- 
tinguished by having the second dorsal fin separate from the 
tail, although sometimes in only a small degree. 

The body is long and round, slightly compressed, but more 
so near the tail, and thus not unlike an eel. When the mouth 
is closed, the part before the eyes appears somewhat length- 
ened; but when open it is circular and terminal, so that the 
fish appears as if the head had been cut off. The rim of what 
may be termed the under jaw is a little curved, forming a 
ridge which is edged with sharp points; on the tongue there is 
a more solid and firm bed of three teeth, having sharp points ; 
and above, there is an arch of nine bifid teeth, the middle one 
lower than the others—in all there are ten bifid teeth; the re- 
mainder of the mouth is covered with teeth having sharp 
points, which stand in rows that pass off in curved radu from 
the throat; the lower ones small: altogether a formidable 
arrangement. ‘These teeth are deciduous, the new ones thrust- 
ing off the old and taking their place. The mode of arrange- 
ment is a specific character of this fish, and I have found the 
renewal occurring in May; but it does not appear to observe 
a regular recurrence. ‘The mouth is frmged with fibres. Hye 
moderate, lively ; vent far behind. First dorsal fin behind the 
middle of the body, lower and shorter than the second; the 
caudal fin separate, and surrounding the tail. The colour is 
often variegated and beautiful, as it is referred to by Ausonius ; 
but sometimes it is plain and almost uniform ; and this dif- 
ference appears to belong to the district in which the indi- 
vidual is found; but on the whole the tendency is to blue 
or green, with yellow on the sides and belly. ‘he manner 
in which the process of breathing is conducted is deserving 
of notice. Under ordinary circumstances, when the mouth 
is open, the water probably enters by it and passes out by 
the openings of the gills; as it does also when the mouth 
is held above the water, and water is seen to be drawn in by 
the opening on the head. But on some occasions when wholly 
immersed it was discharged by that opening as well as by the 
gills ; but it was never seen to enter by the gills of one side, as 
has been supposed, to be discharged by the orifices on the 
other side. ‘lhis family of fishes has usually been arranged 
with cartilaginous fishes, which certainly is not its place. ‘They 
bear a closer affinity to the annelid or worm tribe. Professor 
Owen says that in their fully ossified skeleton there is only one 
and a-half of earthy salt per cent.; and the remainder is 
mucus, not gelatine. 


418 Gautier on Nebulee. 


GAUTIER ON NEBULA. 


Vue Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse has an interesting 
article by Professor Gautier on Nebule, of which the following 
is a condensed account : 

The author begins by stating that his purpose is to give 
“a sheht idea” of a wonderful class of objects which have been 
specially studied by the two Herschels, Messier, Lord Rosse, 
Vico, Secchi, Lamont, Lassell, and Bond, and of which fifty- 
three have been accurately placed in M. Langier’s catalogue, 
published in the Comptes Rendus of 12th December, 1853. 
This ist gives the positions of the nebulz with great nicety, 
and thus lays a foundation for deciding whether they are really 
situated beyond the fixed stars that are visible to us. 

The Orion nebula formed the subject of a paper presented 
through M. Struve to the St. Petersburg Academy in 1856, 
and which detailed the results of four years’ investigations, 
conducted by M. Liapounoff (Director of the Kasan Observatory) , 
with an equatoreal telescope, equal to that of Dorpat, and a 
meridian circle of Repsold. M. Liapounoff noted down the 
position of every star he could distmguish in this nebula, and 
im comparing his accounts with those of Sir J. Herschel and 
Messrs. Lamont and Bond, M. Struve came to the conclusion 
that it must be subject to changes of form, and of the relative 
brightness of its different parts. 

At Poulkova M. Otto Struve continued the work of M. 
Liapounoff, as recorded in the Monthly Notices of the Astrono- 
mical Society for 1857. M. Struve pointed out the variable 
light of divers little stars, and he observed: ‘‘'The existence of 
so many variable stars in so smail a space of the central part 
of the most curious nebula in the heavens, naturally induces us 
to suppose that these phenomena are intimately connected with 
the mysterious nature of this body. . . . . In admitting 
that the rapid changes of light observed in these little stars, 
whether in the region called Huyghens or that termed Subnebu- 
losa, are connected with the nature of the nebula, we may pre- 
sume that we should equally observe changes m the appearance 
of the nebula, and in the distribution of the nebulous matter ; 
but observations of this kind are subject to so many illusions 
that we cannot be too cautious.” Among causes of discrepancy 
between different observations, he enumerated the power of the 
telescope, the state of the atmosphere, the eye of the observer, 
and his experience in producing graphic delineations of this 
kind of object; which, taken altogether, precluded any cer- 
tain discovery of changes of a progressive character that might 
occur in short spaces of time. It is, therefore, towards rapid 


Gautier on Nebulee. 419 


changes that attention should be directed, and they can be better 
noted by attending to certain prominent portions of the nebula 
than by watching it as a whole. Following this rule, M. Struve 
thought he detected considerable alterations in a single winter, 
and he mentioned four parts of the nebula in which they seemed 
to have occurred. The first is a bay extending from the Strait 
of Le Gentil in the direction of the trapezium of stars situated 
towards the middle of the nebula. This bay sometimes 
appeared to him dark lke the strait; at others full of nebu- 
losity, and little mferior in light to the parts surrounding the 
region of Huyghens. Dr. Lamont was the first to describe 
this bay, which was not seen by Sir J. Herschel. The second 
is a nebulous bridge traversing the Great Strait, and exhibit- 
ing towards its centre a luminous point. In the winter M. 
Struve saw it as represented by Herschel and by Liapounoff, 
with much more concentration of light, but always much more 
extended than it appeared to these two astronomers, and closely 
approaching the southern limit of the Great Strait. M. Lamont 
had only indicated the faintest traces of it, and M. Bond had 
not seen it at all. The third is a nebulosity surrounding star 
75 of Herschel’s catalogue, and which appeared to M. Struve 
subject to great changes of light. The fourth is a sort of nar- 
row channel (canal étroit) connecting in a straight line the dark 
space situated about stars 76, 80, 84 of Herschel’s catalogue, 
with the northern margin of the Great Strait. This channel, 
not figured by any former observer, was distinctly seen by M. 
Struve on the 24th March, 1857, but on other occasions he 
could not discover the least sign of it. He thus arrived at the 
conclusion that the centre of the Orion nebula isin a state of con- 
stant change, but he considered that, except under favourable 
circumstances, no achromatic telescope of less than ten inches 
aperture would enable them to be perceived. 

In 1861 the Monthly Notice of the Astronomical Society 
contained a report by Mr. G. Bond, of Harvard College, on the 
“« Spiral Structure of the Great Nebula in Orion.’ Mr. Bond, 
senior, in 1848 noticed a disposition in the lght of this 
nebula to radiate from the south side, starting from the vici- 
nity of the trapezium of stars situated towards the middle.’ 
Mr. G. Bond began, in 1857, to form a catalogue of stars, com- 
prised within a square of 40 minutes, having @ (theta) in its 
centre. He selected 121 brillant stars as points of reference 
for the smaller stars which were of too feeble ight to remain 
visible when his micrometer threads were illuminated. He 
placed in his first sketch 262 stars. The form and disposition 
of the elongated luminous tufts, alternating with darker spaces, 
proceeding from the neighbourhood of the trapezium, were 
determined by two independent proceedings, the nebula being 


42.0 Gautier on Nebulee. 


first sketched as a light object on a dark ground, and then as a © 
dark object upon a light ground. 

The general aspect of the greater part of the nebula as thus 
depicted, was that of an assemblage of tufts or curved bunches 
of luminous matter emanating from the brilliant masses near 
the trapezium, extending towards the south on each side of an 
axis, passing by the top of the region of Huyghens, and whose 
angle of position is nearly 180°. Twenty of these circumyolu- 
tions were distinctly traced, while others, producing the same im- 
pression, are too faint or too complicated to be described with 
precision. Thus the nebula. of Orion belongs to the spiral class. 

Mr. Bond noticed many cases in which masses of nebulous 
matter were associated with stars, frequently under the form of 
little tufts extending from the south side. He likewise cites 
two remarkable instances of a deficit of luminous matter close 
to tolerably briliant stars. The first occurs in the trapezium 
itself, the dark centre of which has been noticed by many ob- 
servers, and the other belongs to the star (iota). Mr. Bond 
inclined to the idea that there was a physical connection be- 
tween the stars and the nebulosity. The spiral form accorded 
with the notion of a stellar arrangement, as shown in a mass 
of stars, properly so called, in the constellation Hercules, which 
have evidently a curvilinear disposition. 

In 1860, Mr. Norman Pogson observed a change in the 
nebula or mass of stars in Scorpio (No. 80 im Messier’s cata- 
logue). On the 9th May, this nebula had its ordinary aspect, 
without any stellar appearance, and on the 28th of the same 
month, he noticed in it a star of 7th or 8th mag., which was 
also seen on the 21st at Koénigsbere by MM. Luther and 
Auwers, and estimated by them as below the 7th mag. On 
the 10th of June following, under a power of 66, the star appear- 
ance was almost invisible, but the nebula glowed with more than 
ordinary lustre, and with a well-marked central condensation. 
Mr. Pogson did not attribute this variation to a change in the 
nebula itself, but thought it singular that a new variable star, 
the third comprised in the same field of vision, should be found 
situated exactly in the centre of this nebula. 

More recently, M. Chacornac has observed the annular 
nebula in Lyra with the great Foucault telescope, and he has 
confirmed its resolution into a mass of minute stars, the most 
brilhant occupying the extremities of the inner axis. ‘This 
nebula looked like a hollow cylinder seen in a direction nearly 
parallel to its axis, with its centre, as described by Lord Rosse, 
veiled by a curtain of nebulous matter which was transformed 
into a thin layer of little stars. When all other light was ex- 
cluded, M. Chacornac found that the scintillation of this multi- 
tude of luminous points produced a singular effect of giddiness. 


Gautier. on Nebulee. 421 


M. Gautier then proceeds to speak of the labours of M. 
d’Arrest, first with a 43 inch telescope, at Leipsic, and since 
then with an 11] inch achromatic at Copenhagen, which has 
enabled him to discover more than 100 new nebule. With 
regard to variable nebulze he thinks much caution needed. 
He confirms Struve’s observations on the nebula of Orion, and 
finds Mr. Hind’s little nebula in Taurus to be also variable.* 
The nebula which Sir J. Herschel thought had disappeared, 
has been seen by M. Chacornac with the Foucault telescope, 
and by M. d’Arrest with his great reflector. 

Sir J. Herschel, in his great paper on nebulee (published in 
Phil. Trans., 1833), remarked that the number of nebule 
physically united, is probably larger in comparison with the 
total number of nebule, than that of double stars when com- 
pared with the entire number of known stars; and taking 5’ 
as the maximum distance of double nebule, M. d’Arrest has 
already arranged fifty under that category, and he estimates 
that there are two or three hundred of this sort out of about 
three thousand nebulz visible in our hemisphere. 

M. d’ Arrest mentions a triple nebula, but only in one 
instance has he been able to observe noticeable changes indicat- 
ing a common revolution. The interesting object has a Right 
Ascension of 109° 12’, and N. Declination 20° 45’. It is repre- 
sented by M. Lassell, in the engraving accompanying his 
memoir, in vol. xxi. of the Astronomical Society. Its two 
components are distinct, being only separated by 28’, but they 
are difficult to see when the micrometer threads are illumi- 
nated. A very small star is seen between them, exactly where 
M. Lassell observed it ten years ago. 

Finally, M. d’Arrest reports a small number of instances in 
which a sheht change of distance and position has been noticed 
after the lapse of a certain time, between particular nebulez and 
small adjacent stars. 

We may remark that, if it can be shown that two or more 
nebule, each probably a system of thousands of suns arranged 
in a particular order, and at great distances from each other, 
really revolve about one another, or about a common. centre, 
not only will some of the grandest views of creation be opened, 
but fresh speculations will arise concerning the nature of the 
force by which such mighty movements are compelled. 


* See INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, vol. li., page 310. 

M. Auwers has published some observations made by him at Géttingen and 
Konigsberg, to show that the two last variable nebule of M. d’Arrest have not 
really altered in luminosity. With regard to the nebula of Mr. Hind, which is 
the only one whose periodic variation has been proved, the same astronomer states 
that he saw it perfectly in March, 1858, but that it was feebler than in 1856. M, 
Chacornac could not find it in 1858, and erroneously thought it had disappeared. 


422 Magnificent Meteor seen on the 27th of November, 1862. 


MAGNIFICENT METEOR SEEN ON THE 27ru OF 
NOVEMBER, 1862. 


BY E. J. LOWE, F.R.A.S., F.L.8., ETC. 


ANOTHER of those curious strangers that now and then make 
their appearance to astonish and puzzle us, was seen on the 
27th of November. 

Before describing this phenomenon, it will perhaps be 
desirable to say a few words, en passant, on meteors in general. 

These bodies vary considerably in size, shape, velocity, and 
appearance: some are so small as scarcely to be visible to the 
naked eye ; others, on the contrary, are two or three times the 
apparent diameter of the moon. Some are visible and gone 
again almost instantaneously, others lasting a number of 
seconds. Respecting their shape, they are oval, circular, kite- 
shaped, sharp and well-defined, or a confused mass of light— 
occasionally assuming extraordinary forms. 

Nearly all the large meteors give the impression of being 
within a few hundred yards of the observer, showing how falla- 
cious our estimate frequently is as to the distance and size of 
bright bodies ; and this remark may also apply with equal truth 
to dark bodies. In a total eclipse of the sun, the dark surface 
of the moon has been seen apparently within two or three 
hundred feet of the earth, and yet it was, in reality, thousands 
of miles away. The meteor that has just occurred was thought 
to be within a few hundred yards of an observer near London, 
and equally near to others who viewed it from Grantham. At 
the latter place a gentleman was certain that 1t was on this side 
of the Wood-hill Tunnel, until it was pointed out that were 
this the case, there must have been a line of brighter light along 
its path reflected on the ground. The }distance, however, had 
no increase of light, and the darkness caused by asteep hill on 
this side of both the moon and meteor was not diminished ; 
clearly showing that it must have been far beyond this hill. 
From the appearance and position, as seen from Dover (150 
miles §.EH.), it seems to have been at least three or four hun- 
dred miles distant from Grantham. As regards size, this is 
also fallacious ; an incandescent body of a known size does not 
decrease in its apparent dimensions by removal to a greater 
or less distance: for m some experiments it was found that 
the source of light appeared greater at a quarter of a mile away 
than it did at a hundred yards. A row of lamps in a street is 
not seen to decrease by distance in the same manner when 
lighted at night as when viewed in the daytime. 

Occasionally these large bodies are seen to burst, a noise as 


Magnificent Meteor seen on the 27th of November, 1862. 423 


of distant thunder is heard, and the meteor itself, or fragments, 
appears to fall to the ground—the actual bursting taking place 
at some miles’ elevation above the surface of the earth. 

There are several distinct features m the ight emitted from 
these large bodies: Ist, there is the light of the meteor itself; 
2nd, a train of sparks or contimuous streak left in its path; and 
drd, a discharge of balls from the head of the meteor. As 
regards the first case there seems to be great differences of 
opinion. From my own observations I greatly doubt the self- 
luminosity of a meteor; the intense light always comes from 
the front edge of the body, as if caused by becoming ignited, 
or igniting something in the region through which it passes. 
The great difficulty is to imagine what that something can be 
on the confines of the air, if not actually above the atmosphere. 
Aurora borealis at the same height exhibits a flame: it must, 
therefore, be a light-bearing region, perhaps magnetic. The 
friction produced by the velocity of a large body may cause the 
ignition. Our ordimary flame is not bright enough to produce 
the intense ight of a meteor; the brightness of electrical light 
would be nearer the truth. 

With regard to the train of sparks, or continuous line or 
streak of light often left after the meteor itself has vanished, 
and which in the case of a train of sparks only lasts a second 
or two, whilst as a streak or line of light it has been known to 
last upwards of a quarter of an hour—this more closely re- 
sembles a phosphorescent luminosity, that when once luminous 
it is with difficulty extinguished. I have seen it as a long line 
that has been gradually bent into a wavy line by currents. I 
have also seen the two ends of a straight line of this light 
actually unite and form a circle with stars shining within the 
inclosed rmg. The meteor which produced the phenomenon 
had departed in one direction, whilst this phosphorescent lumi- 
nosity was borne along at right angles to the meteor’s path. 
The velocity is so very different; a meteor, when recorded as 
moving slowly, moves many times more rapidly than is the case 
with this luminosity—the latter is always very sluggish in its 
movements. The balls projected from the head of the meteor, 
usually (but I think erroneously) considered the bursting, 
always fall perpendicularly. The impression given is, that 
fragments are split from the outer edge of the body, which fall, 
by the law of gravitation, to the earth. The appearance of these 
balls is not confined to the bursting of the meteor—+.e., imme- 
diately before its disappearance they are seen to be emitted as 
showers, sometimes at frequent intervals along its path; and 
these displays were of frequent occurrence with the meteor of 
November 27th. 

The accounts given of these almost instantaneous appear- 


424 Magnificent Meteor seen on the 27th of November, 1862. 


| ances require to be taken with caution. With those unused 

to observation there is certain to be a want of steadiness ; 
amazement bewilders the brain and frequently exaggerates the 
appearance; then, again, the want of proper words and terms 
of description, and also of the knowledge of the various fea- 
tures to be examined—all operate against a faithful account. 
This is to be regretted, because each meteor puts on a different 
appearance, according to the position of the observer; and this 
will be apparent when examining the accounts of the late 
meteor as seen from Grantham and Dover—two places 150 


miles from each other. 


‘og ge aD g 
Swe Gulr Ong 


ip 
6: 
Ea” ra 
i> B (e 
tae 3 
eee 


METEOR AND FORMATION OF ROCKET-LIKE SHOWERS. 


The meteor of 27th November was seen by myself on the 
platform of the railway station at Grantham under the most 
favourable circumstances—so much go, that there cannot be 
an error of five seconds im time, nor of one minute in space. 

Hour of appearance.—5h. 46m. 57s. p.u., G.M.T. 
Hour of disappearance.—dh. 47m. 5s. p.m., G.M.T. 


Motion.—Slow. 


Duration.—8 seconds. 
Greatest diameter (7.c., width across the head).—0° 31’ 0”. 


Length longitudinally.—1° 17’ 0". 
Colour.—Blue. 


Form.—Kute-shaped. 
Position near 6 Ceti.—AR. Oh. 36m. 39s.; §. Dec. 18° 


45’ 0”. 
Position near Fomalhaut.—AR. 22h. 50m. Is.; 8. Dec. 


30° 20’ 59”. 


Magnificent Meteor seen on the 27th of November, 1862. 425 


The meteor was somewhat kite-shaped, being’ nearly equal 
to the moon in breadth, and above twice her apparent diameter 
in length. (This estimate being taken by looking at the 
meteor and the moon at the same time.) 

The light was an intense blue, but only intensely bright in 
the front, mostly as a crescent, but occasionally expanding to 
almost a circle; the remaining portion milky-white, and dim in 
comparison. 

A train of sparks was left in its path, yet these only lasted 
from one to two seconds; balls of a blue colour, of large size 
(almost equal to the apparent diameter of Mars), also fell from 
the head of the meteor, perpendicularly downwards, not con- 
tinuously but at frequent intervals (more especially between 8 
Ceti and Fomalhaut). These balls threw out other smaller 
balls, which burst into star-like sparks of a yellowish colour, 
not unlike the shower seen from a rocket at a distance, but 
infinitely more beautiful. 

The meteor gradually increased in size, but not uniformly ; 
an occasional decrease in size and brightness taking place. It 
vanished at its maximum brightness, not bursting, but as if 
going behind some opaque body. 

I did not see the commencement, owing to a building; but 
from the testimony of the Grantham stationmaster (who was on 
the other side) it must have commenced very near to where I 
first saw it: if the path were produced backwards, it would 
almost cross the Pleiades. My view commenced near a Ceti, 
and after progressmg some distance the meteor passed almost 
over 8 Ceti, and then immediately above Fomalhaut, vanishing 
4° beyond this star, and about 5° above my horizon. 

This meteor gave avery strong impression that it was a 
non-luminous body—the light being produced by the friction of 
its velocity on the air. 

Mr. H. P. Finlayson saw this meteor from Sandgate, near 
Dover, and his remarks add great interest to this appearance. 
They are— 

“* Hour of first appearance.—dh. 47m. 5s. p.m., G.M.T. 
Duration.—Not more than 4s. or 5s. 
Motion.—Slow. 
Greatest diameter.—0° 13°. 
Greatest length.—0° 26’. 
Colour.—White, but reflected hght blush. 
Form.-—Kite-shaped, or what are called ‘ Prince Rupert’s 
Drops.’ 
Position of appearance.—R.A. 23h.; 8S. Dec. 7. 
Position of explosion or disappearance.—R.A. 20h. 40m. ; 
S. Dec. about 25°. 
“ Although the moon was extremely bright and clear its ight 
VOL. 11.—NO. VI. ; GG 


426 Magnificent Meteor seen on the 27th of November, 1862. 


was lessened by that of the meteor; and I have little hesitation 
in saying that if a transit had occurred the meteor would have 
been seen as a bright body on the moon. ‘There were no 
coloured balls seen to fall from its head, but a train of red 
sparks was left m its path. 

“‘ Had its path been continued backwards, it would pass about 
midway between the moon and the planet Mars; and if a line 
touching the horns of the moon and produced till it mtersected 
the path of the meteor, it would have been nearly at right 
angles with it.” 

Tt will thus be seen that near Dover the meteor first came 
into view at the point where it disappeared at Grantham; that 
it was white instead of blue; that it was not nearly so large, but 
apparently quite as bright, and that no coloured balls fell from 
its head. 

The Rev. John Burdor saw the formation of the meteor from 
English Bicknor, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire; he 
saw a stream of sparks for an instant, which gathered, as it 
were, into the meteor—one or two solitary sparks at first, im- 
creasing to a stream until the meteor was formed, and then the 
meteor itself increasing in glory and volume until it vanished. 
The colour most intense blue. The height above the horizon 
was guessed to be 60°. 

At Streatham Hill, London, it had the appearance of being 
in a state of imcandescence, surpassing the electric light in 
brilancy, if possible. It disappeared without any apparent ex- 
plosion about 5° beyond, where it became invisible at Grantham. 

At Sutton Courtney, near Abingdon, Mr. John Kent says 
there was a slight explosion similar to that of a percussion-cap, 
and this attracted his attention to it; he considered it remark- 
able how suddenly it disappeared, there bemg apparently no 
obstacle to hide it. Mr. J. Seeley, who saw it from Hazeby 
Heath, Hants, was also struck with the suddenness of its dis- 
appearance. 

At Bridport, in Dorset, Mr. Charles Walker saw it rise in the 
N.E., move horizontally, and d disappear in 8.H. We estimated 
its oreatest height at about 20°; its shape conical, with a cir- 
cular base, the latter moving foremost. The apparent length 
was rather ereater than the diameter of the full moon, and 
the greatest breadth about half its len oth. 

Mr. Philip Barrington saw the meteor from near Bray, 
county Wicklow. It appeared almost due H., and moved 
rapidly to about due §.H., lasting only a few “seconds. It 
seemed about four times the diameter of the moon in leneth, and 
half its diameter in breadth at the head, tapermg down to the 
extremity of the tail. It moved nearly horizontally at an alti- 
tude of 5° or 6°. A number of sparks were left behind in its 


The Hye and the Microscope. 42:7 


progress, and just before its disappearance it threw out the most 
brilliant light, blue and green, like the explosion of an enormous 
rocket. 

Mr. A. P. Falconer, of Lymington, Hants, saw a great 
light issue from the sky, and increase in size as it approached 
him. He says, “I was then standing in a line due S. with the 
needle rocks; as it advanced to this line, suddenly it cast off 
sparks in the same way as is seen to fly off from the blows of 
the smith’s hammer off a piece of hot iron; on its N.E. limb 
and under it these lumps of fire and flame flew off im curls, 
some falling down whilst part formed a broad expanse of light 
behind it, crimson-red interlined above with greenish-blue, and 
below bright yellow. The ball of light was bright blue, and i 
was like a Roman candle. I fancied as it cast off these sparks. 
it seemed impeded in its course, and apparently to forge its way 
along. Its size increased as it approached me; I feared these 
sparks, discharged so abundantly, would set fire to my hay and 
straw ricks; these ceased, it turned more southerly, then 
quickly whirled to the 8. (due), between the earth and the 
moon (which was then over it), and vanished away.” 

The meteor, as Mr. Falconer observes, was impeded in its 
course; there was at Grantham a momentary check m its 
velocity each time it discharged a shower of balls. 


THE EYE AND THE MICROSCOPE. 


BY HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.S., 
(Member of the Microscopical Society of London). 


Tr is a common, but fortunately an erroneous opinion, that the 
use of the microscope is necessarily followed by injury to the 
eyes. It is no doubt true that those organs are often fatigued 
by looking through the optical arrangements by which the 
minute world is made known to us; but the imconvenience 
generally results from causes capable of removal; and it is not 
too much to affirm that very few miscroscopic studies, whether 
pursued in the day-time, by the help of natural illumination, or 
of an evening, by the aid of appropriate lamps, have any 
inevitable tendency to debilitate the sight. Hxperienced 
observers are well aware of this fact, and unless their re- 
searches have demanded unusual exertion, they can report, 
after ten or twenty years’ labour, that their visual apparatus 
has not deteriorated any faster, if so fast, as that of thea 


A28 The Hye and the Microscope. 


neighbours, which has never been employed in seeking the 
information which lenses are able to afford. 

In the earlier days of optical science, it was impossible to 
imitate the natural conditions of good and pleasant sight, 
either with the microscope or the telescope. ‘The eye possessed 
advantages which no artist was then able to reproduce in 
optical combinations; and hence every attempt to extend 
its powers involved the necessity of putting up with serious 
defects. These unfavourable circumstances have been so 
far changed, that it is now possible to make telescopic, or 
microscopic, vision almost as clear and as easy as if no instru- 
ment intervened. ‘To do so, however, requires a close copy of 
the natural conditions of satisfactory sight. We see objects 
most agreeably and correctly at a certain distance, with a 
certain quantity and a particular direction of light; and it is 
also necessary that they should be, or appear to be, of a suffi- 
cient size. ‘To stare at a white house in the full glare of sun- 
light, to strain every nerve in order to make out dim outlines 
faintly and uncertaimly looming through a fog—these are 
things which everybody knows are painful and mischievous ; 
and if we make our microscopic experiments under a similar 
blaze, or im a similar mist, we shall easily produce an analo- 
gous effect. If, on the other hand, the light falls softly, and in 
right quantity, upon or through our object—if the power em- 
ployed is sufficient to make the details clear, and the whole 
arrangement is good—the sensation will bear so close a resem- 
blance to that of the normal vision, that little or no fatigue will 
be felt. 

This question is important, because on the one hand many 
persons hesitate to become microscopists from a fear that their 
eyes will not bear the strain; and, on the other hand, scores of 
people who have purchased instruments, give up their use 
because they do not succeed in seeing through them with 
satisfaction and ease. The first essential requisite is to obtain 
a microscope free from important defects, and unless it is con- 
venient to spend a large sum of money at once, it 18 better to 
have only two powers, and a sufficient quantity of apparatus to 
use these with the best effect. Furnished with a microscope 
having a body about ten inches long, or if shorter with a 
Kelner eye-piece—which to some extent remedies the want of 
length—and two objectives of one inch, or two-thirds, and one- 
quarter, or one-fifth focal lengths, and with two or three eye- 
pieces, the student can verify the majority of observations of 
general interest in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and he 
can examine for himself all the objects ke is hkely to collect. A 
greater array of powers is often convenient, and even indispen- 
sable for special purposes; but it is of far more consequence 


The Hye and the Microscope. A29 


to use those mentioned well, and they must, under any circum- 
stances, form the staple instruments of research. The lowest of 
these powers, the inch, or two-thirds, should have a perfectly 
flat field, and evince no sensible defects if made to give four 
times its ordinary magnification by a higher eye-piece and a few 
inches of the draw-tube. A well-made section of an echinus’ 
spine is a good test for flatness of field—the margin and the 
centre should come im and go out of focus together. That 
elegant Diatom, the Arachnoidiscus Hhrenbergu, will likewise 
supply a fair but by no means a difficult test of defining power. 
Let us imagine a beginner trying to show these two objects. 
In the first place, let him take the echinus’ spine, the inch or 
two-thirds object-glass, and the first eye-piece. Having got 
the spine in focus, the mode of illumination will decide whether 
it can be seen without wearying the eye. The microscope ought 
to have the mirror below the stage so mounted as to move up 
and down, and right and left, and to assume a position at any 
angle with the plane in which the object les. Candles should 
be avoided as a source of light. They are too unsteady and 
continually vary in height. Discard them, therefore, and 
buy a small paraffin lamp for a shilling or eighteenpence.* It 
will be high enough for many purposes, and can be raised when 
required by a block of mahogany or a book. As a general 
rule, the source of light is required at two elevations only—one 
suited for transparent illumination with the mirror under the 
stage, and the other to enable the bull’s-eye to condense the 
rays upon any substance to be seen by the light which it 
reflects. ‘The lamp should, except in some special case, be 
placed on the left of the observer, a few inches from the micro- 
scope ; and to prevent his eye being distracted by its glare, a 
shade should be employed. This is made of various patterns 
to suit different fancies, but the simplest plan is to take a piece 
of thin flexible cardboard, about nine inches by six, cover it 
with black cotton velvet, which has no lustre, and make a hole 
in it through which the tube of the microscope, immediately 
below the eye-piece, can be introduced. Supplied with this 
screen, both eyes should be kept open, and the object steadily 
viewed as soon as the focus has been accurately arranged. 
Then take the mirror, which we will suppose to have been 
turned so as to throw some light through the echinus’ spine, 
and observe the effect of slight changes in its position. The 
whole field should be equally lit, or fatigue will ensue from 
some portions being seen worse than others. There should 


* Many observers will prefer a superior lamp, and they should imspect the 
elegant and excellent pattern devised by Mr. Pillischer, the optician. In addi- 
tion to being good for the microscope, it is one of the best reading-lamps yet 
introduced. 


439 The Hye and the Microscope. 


be no glare. With a naked lamp this can be avoided by 
regulating the quantity of the lhght, and paying attention to 
the angle—a little obliquity having a softening effect. A 
ground glass globe gives a pleasant repose, and the same, or a 
better effect may be obtained by melting a bit of spermaceti 
on thin paper, and cutting a disk of the preparation thus made, 
which may, according to its size, be dropt over the largest hole 
of the diaphragm, or placed on the flat side of the bull’s-eye 
lens. The latter is the best plan, as it causes no interference 
with an oblique direction given to the light by turning the 
murror. The student must not imagine he has illuminated the 
echinus’ spine properly until every portion is clear; no part 
bemg enough in the shade to diminish its distinctness, and 
none too bright to be seen without pain. 

Having thoroughly succeeded in illuminating the echinus’ 
spine as a transparent object on a light ground, so that it can 
be seen as comfortably as a willow-pattern plate one foot from 
the eye, let the mirror be thrown out of the plane of the instru- 
ment, and at such an angle that none of its light can fall 
directly upon the object-glass. If this be accomplished, the 
ground will be dark, and the object will stand out in strong 
relief seen by the light it is able to refract, or bend back to the 
plane of the instrument. This produces a beautiful effect, and 
is sometimes superior to the dark ground illumination afforded 
by the parabola or spotted lens. What has been previously said 
about uniform distribution of light should still be attended to, 
as the want of this uniformity is a frequent cause of distress to 
the eye. 

It is customary to treat the parabolic illuminator as if it 
were a difficult instrument to manage, but after a month or 
two’s practice with the stage mirror at various angles, it may 
be advantageously employed, and has an admirable effect, not 
only in giving beauty to a large range of objects which possess 
the necessary refractive power, but in rendering visible points 
of structure which other modes of illumination do not readily 
disclose. For example, the red eyes of rotifers gleam lke 
rubies in its ight. The action of the parabolic illuminator is 
to throw through an object a cone of rays at such an angle that 
none shall enter the objective until refracted by the substance 
under view, which, if suited to the purpose, stands out with 
great brilhance on a black ground. The stop with which it 
is provided should usually be pulled back and a strong heht 
thrown up the instrument from the stage mirror, which should 
receive a good supply of light from the bulls- -eye or condens- 
ing Jens, having in this case its flat side to the lamp. It is 
usual to recommend the use of the plane mirror, but the con- 
cave one generally answers best. The parabola should be 


The Hye and the Microscope. 431 


gently moved backwards or forwards till the best condensa- 
tion of light is obtained. 

The lesson with the echinus’ spine is not yet over. It 
should be seen as an opaque body, with the bull’s-eye lens, 
with the lieberkuhn and dark well, and with the side silver re- 
flector. If the bull’s-eye is intended to give a strong spot of 
light, its conver side may be turned towards the lamp; but 
when employed to increase the quantity of light which falls 
upon the mirror, its flat side should occupy that position. The 
leberkuhn is very easily used, andif a few shillmgs do not 
matter, it is better to get a set of dark wells from the optician 
than to make shift with spots of velvet or lamp-black upon a 
glass slide. The side silver reflector cannot be recommended 
to a mere beginner, but after afew months work has given some 
skill in manipulation, it is a valuable aid. It is best mounted 
on a stand like a little bull’s-eye, and should have motions 
im all directions, including the means of changing its height. 
When it is to be used, place the lamp on the right hand, the 
bull’s-eye in front of it, and the silver reflector on the left, so 
that 1t may catch the light, which will be thrown across the 
stage. Thus arranged this piece of apparatus has several ad- 
vantages. It gives light with one reflection from a single 
surface, which has no tendency to become chromatic, and it 
affords great facilities for oblique illumination. With such an 
object as the elytron of the diamond beetle it has a gorgeous 
effect, and, at the same time, brings out fine lines which an 
equal amount of light less judiciously applied would efface. It 
will not do so*well with the echinus’ spine, as the method 
of dark-ground illumination already described ; but the student 
should try this, and other objects, in every possible way, and 
will thus acquire manipulative skill and judgment concerning 
the best plan to employ. 

Having gone through a set of illuminating experiments 
with the echinus’ spine, repeat them with the slide of arach- 
noidiscus, and specially note the beautiful appearance which 
these diatoms present when the parabola is used. The 
then resemble the exquisite filagree-work which the Maltese 
execute in silver; and if the parabola is suddenly removed, 
and light from the mirror under the stage sent through the 
object a great change will be noticed in the disposition of the 
light, and dark lines. The markings of the arachnoidiscus must 
be displayed as they are shown in good drawings whatever 
mode of illumination be employed, and it is well to select a 
slide containing, in addition to one or two arachnoidisci, some 
other large diatoms, such as Triceratuwm, Biddulphia, etc., which 
can be displayed with the same power. 

The objects recommended for the first lesson in such a use ~ 


432 The Hye and the Microscope. 


of the microscope as will not injure the eyes, may be varied 
at the pleasure of the student, but it is well to begin with those 
that can be shown with a low power, and which, either singly 
or in groups, occupy all the field. Another class of objects do not 
want more magnification for their efficient display, but are not 
big enough to occupy so large a space. The tarsal joints of the 
feet of many insects, their spiracles and mandibles, belong to 
this category. Now, if such objects are surrounded by a flood of 
bright heht, they will not be distimctly shown, and the eye of 
the observer will be uncomfortably affected. In these cases 
the object should be arranged exactly in the centre of the 
field, as a symmetrical appearance is more agreeable and less 
fatiguing than the aspect of anything that looks askew. In 
the next place, the hght must be moderated by obliquity, 
by the spermaceti paper, or by some other mode. The least 
troublesome of these methods is the spermaceti paper, or a 
piece of semi-transparent white glass made for the purpose. 
If the object needs a very strong hght to make it sufficiently 
transparent, the best plan is to use an achromatic condenser 
and allow a sharp pencil of light to reach it through one of the 
smaller stops. The value of the achromatic condenser for 
showing difficult objects is well known, but its advantage in 
saving the eyes is less recognised than it deserves. Many 
things, such as portions of insects, can be seen distinctly with- 
out it, though with a fatigue which is avoided by its use. 
When employed with low powers the usual plan is to remove 
the upper part of the combination so as to bring its focal 
length below that of the objective employed. In many cases, 
‘however, it is better to use the whole, which we will suppose 
to be a quarter-inch power, and to throw it out of focus, so that 
the rays will cross before reaching the object. ‘This plan, with 
the use of one of the smaller holes or stops, gives enough hght 
for many purposes and prevents over excitement of the eye. 

No student who wishes to work efficiently with a quarter- 
inch, a fifth, or a higher power, should begin with either of 
them; but first learn to use an inch or two-thirds with the 
various methods of illumination which we have indicated. If 
premature efforts are made to obtain considerable magnification, 
disappointment will mevitably result, and so far as what Dr. 
iGjtchener termed the “ economy of the eyes” is concerned, it 
should be remembered that every increase of power augments 
the difficulties of obtaming a clear and pleasant view. An 
experienced manipulator will show a properly selected and pre- 
parea cuject with the highest objectives without any sacrifice of 
convenience or distinctness; but it is only after considerable 
practice that a beginner will be really successful with a quarter- 
inch, The popular notion of the necessity for magnification is 


The Hye and the Microscope. 433 


quite wrong’, and the common exclamation, “ That must be a 
very powerful microscope,” is a frequent indication of this mis- 
take. High powers are needed to exhibit details that can have no 
meaning’, and often no beauty, for those whose minds have not 
been previously prepared to appreciate them by a broader 
acquaintance with the complete structure of which they form a 
part. Thus the same steps which the microscopist should take 
for the preservation of his eyes, lay the best foundation for the 
more difficult operations, in which the employment of higher 
objectives and of niceties of illumination become indispensable. 

When a good set of experiments have been made with an 
inch or two-thirds objective, and the difficulties of microscopic 
vision have been sufficiently conquered, a similar course should be 
commenced with a quarter or a fifth object-glass. Objects that 
are severe tests of the perfection of such glasses should be avoided 
until those which are easier have been successfully displayed. 
The scales of the Vanessa urtice, and that pretty diatom the Pleu- 
rosigma hippocampus, will do admirably for a beginning, taking 
them in the order mentioned. The butterfly scales require a 
clear, steady light sent through with little obliquity, and the 
mirror must be turned so that the illumination leaves their edges 
clear all round. If one side appears shadowy, there is some 
fault in the angle at which the light falls; and if the unoccupied 
part of the field is too brillant, either the ight must be reduced 
by turning the lamp a little lower, or the distance of the mirror 
from the stage must be altered, or the spermaceti screen inter- 
posed. 

The Pleurosigna hippocampus will give good practice im 
regulating the obliquity of the rays from the mirror. It is a 
very easy object for a good manipulator, but a beginner must 
not be surprised if he makes a hundred trials before he can 
quickly and readily show the two sets of lines as plainly as he 
can see the pattern of an engine-turned watch. As a rule, no 
more light should be used in displaying any object than would 
be sufficient to imitate the brightness of a larger object of the 
same kind as seen in the diffused illumination of a fine day, and 
it is often desirable not to exceed that of a shady room in the 
summer time. When the lamp and optical contrivances have 
been judiciously arranged, an increase or decrease of light can 
be obtained by turning the wick a little higher or lower, and if 
an observation is prolonged, less light will suffice than for a 
temporary glance, as the eye is more willing to accommodate 
itself to a moderate illumination than to grow accustomed to 
anything like a glare. 

A magnification of two hundred linear or upwards can only 
afford easy vision with objects that are very flat, as slight inequa- 
lities of surface inevitably throw the salient, or retreating, por- 


434 The Kye and the Microscoye. 


tions, as the case may be, out of focus. As a general rule, the 
larger the angle of aperture of the object-glass, and the more 
oblique the rays it can receive from the surface of the object, 
the more cloudy will be any parts that are not focussed to a 
nicety, and hence, for ordinary use, it is well that a quarter- 
inch power should not exceed about 80 or 90 angular aperture, 
and a fifth a little more. The impossibility of making any high 
power work well on uneven objects indicates a practical restric- 
tion of their use ; and when they must be employed upon things 
which they can only show in part, no attention should be paid 
to what is indistinct. This habit is easily formed by concen- 
trating attention upon that which is seen well; and if this is 
accomplished, a fertile source of optical discomfort is removed. 

Let one more hint be given on the avoidance of injury to 
the eye. Secure steadiness in the instrument, the table, and 
the place of observation. It is extremely fatiguing, and taxes 
the brain as well as the eye, to try to make out the details of 
objects that are fidgetting about. Slides merely require a 
good instrument, a table which no one shakes, and a room im 
which no one runs or stamps about; but live things must be 
restrained by slight compression, or by a loop of thread, which 
when pressed down in the live box, forms a sort of cage, the 
whole of which can be taken in by the power employed. 

It would be easy to prolong these hints on the eye and 


‘ the microscope; but if, the student can be set to work in 


the right manner, he will soon be able to profit by the labours 
of well-known writers; and if, during the first three months of 
his engaging in microscopic pursuits, he will determme never 
to be satisfied unless his objects are seen as easily and as 
plainly as the furniture of the room, he will not, in any sub- 
sequent portion of his career, complain that the employment 
of the most fascinating of optical imstruments has injured his 
sight. 


Hepeviences of Haschisch. 435 


EXPERIENCES OF HASCHISCH. 
BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD. 


Tue translation of a note by M. 8. de Luca, on Haschisch, 
which appeared in the December number of the INTELLECTUAL 
OxpsERVER (page 346), recalled to my memory some experiences 
of my own in the use of Haschisch. ‘These experiences might 
not be worth recording were it not a matter of some interest to 
the medical profession whether or not Haschisch can be exhibited 
asa therapeutic agent, a matter to be determined very much by 
a comparison of its effects on persons of various habit and con- 
stitution. It may be right to preface these remarks by stating 
that I am of middling height, spare habit, sanguine-nervous 
temperament, not robust, but have always enjoyed sound health, 
have great powers of endurance, and possess altogether a 
vigorous constitution. 

The publication, in 1845, of a work on Haschisch, by Dr. 
Moreau,* occasioned between myself and a friend, who was then 
preparing for the medical profession, some conversations on this 
and other narcotics, the result of which was that we several 
times smoked and swallowed opium, and resolved also to possess 
ourselves of some Haschisch. We made application to Messrs. 
Battley and Watts, the druggists, of Fore Street, without suc- 
cess, and, after other fruitless efforts, gave up the hope of ever 
tasting the fascinating compound of Cannabis Indica. In 1849 
my friend was sent to Paris, and he soon after wrote to me 
to say that the students at the Medical Schools were all 
indulging in the intoxication of Haschisch, and by the next 
post he would forward me a sample. In due time I received a 
small brown slab, resembling a refined sample of Cavendish 
tobacco, and with it instructions to take not more than one 
drachm at atime. Iwas so eager to make acquaintance with 
it that I could have taken the whole at once. It weighed about 
half an ounce; it emitted an agreeable odour when broken, and 
felt sticky between the fingers. I trembled with joy as I 
turned it over and over in my hand, and I thought the odour 
affected me so as to produce a sense of inward satisfaction, like 
that of the first few whiffs of'a good cigar. I retired to my 
study, it was then growing dusk, the season July, and I had 
been up two nights im succession reading Jacob Behmen. I 
remember feeling quite fatigued and low, yet in perfect health, 
and in the mood for any wild freak which might promise a 
sensation agreeable to the imagimation. I sat down at the 
window, broke off a piece of the cake as near a drachm as I 
could guess, and swallowed it. I put away the remainder, that 


* “ Du Haschisch et de V Alienation Mentale Etudes Psychologiques.” 


4356 Hzperiences of Haschisch. 


I might not be tempted to take a second dose, and waited 
anxiously to feel its effects. 

I soon became conscious of a sense of disappointment. I 
said ‘That was not Haschisch, but some preparation of choco- 
late.” I took my pen to write an indignant letter to my friend, 
that he might know I had not become an easy dupe to his plan 
for deceiving me. I was at a loss how to begin the letter, 
though otherwise always ready at writing, even when fatigued. 
For a moment I paused, considering, and then the parietal 
bones of my head expanded widely, as if parting at the sutures, 
and again collapsed with a sort of shuffling sound. I said, 
“This is the result of fatigue; I have read too hard, I will go 
to bed.” As I rose from my table I became conscious of an 
agreeable state of warmth and lightness; I felt as if I had taken 
Scotch whisky. The room seemed larger than usual, and 
getting larger and larger still; some skulls of animals on the 
walls acquired colossal proportions, and the conviction entered 
my mind that I had realized an old dream of living in the midst 
of the monsters of the Oolitic period, and that I had been awe- 
struck for years, immoveable, paralyzed, and with every faculty 
benumbed, except the faculty of wonder. I caught sight of my 
watch hanging in front of some papers on the wall, it at once 
dispelled the illusion. I calmly looked at it, and found it was 
just twenty minutes since I swallowed the Haschisch. Imme- 
diately the watch expanded to vast dimensions, and its ticking 
sounded through my head like the pulsation of a world. I 
knew now for the first time that I was under the influence of 
the drug, and began to make a few notes in pencil. Suddenly 
my lhmbs seemed benumbed, my toes shrunk within my slippers, 
my fingers became like the long legs of a convulsed spider, I 
dropped the pencil, and walked to the window. ‘The landscape 
was so sublime that I forgot the cause of the illusion in my 
admiration of the magical scene. The horizon was removed to 
an infinite distance, but was still discernible, and the sunset 
had marked it out with myriads of fiery circles all revolving, 
mingling together, expanding and then changing to an aurora, 
which shot up to the zenith, and fell down in sparks and 
splashes among the trees, which at once became illuminated, 
and the whole scene was grand beyond description, with fires of 
every conceivable colour. 

All this time the landscape continued to expand, everything 
grew as I looked on to greater and greater proportions. ‘Trees 
shot up higher and higher; their branches overspread the sky ; 
they met together, and became a confused mass; the lights, 
which just before had glowed on every hand, changed toa gene- 
ral purple haze, a sense of twitching im every limb, coupled with 
a feeling of weariness and depression, caused me to turn aside 


Experiences of Haschisch. 437 


and sit down. The twitching changed to asharp pricking sen- 
sation, most violent in the extremities, and for a moment the 
thought crossed my mind that I had been poisoned by strych- 
nine. I opened a drawer to find an emetic, but the drawer had 
gone, and in its place sat one of my antediluvian monsters 
grinning at me—a real icthyosaurus, with a red cap on its 
head, and with drum and pandean pipes. Yor about six weeks 
—so at the time I determined the period—it played a monoto- 
nous tune, while I sat on the ground laughing and enjoying the 
idea of my toes and fingers being elongated into claws, when 
suddenly the thought seized me that I would destroy the illu- 
sion by an effort. I dashed at the monster, and my hand fell 
on the handle of the drawer. The dream was dissolved, and I 
could clearly understand that the ticking of my watch and the 
singing of a bird in the garden, were the real sounds which my 
fancy had changed to the drum and pipes of my Oolitic com- 
panion. I once more looked at my watch, and though years 
seemed to have elapsed since the spell began, I found the real 
period to be but twenty-five minutes. 

This last act of observing the time threw me again off 
my balance. I said, “Twenty-five minutes, twenty-five days, 
twenty-five months, twenty-five years, twenty-five centuries, 
twenty-five eons. Now I know it all; I am the alchemist who 
discovered the elixir of life in the dark-ages, and I shall live for 
ever; what is time to me? Yes, that was the elixir I took 
twenty-five minutes ago to experience a sensation, and there it 
goes round the room.” It made me giddy to see it whirl like a 
wheel of which I was the centre. There was a bust of Milton 
on the shelf which had changed to the face of Jacob Behmen, 
and it sat on one of the spokes of the wheel, and smiled upon 
me with such a smile of peace and satisfaction that I shouted 
“Ha, ha!” The wheel revolved; it became brilliant with 
fiery corruscations, and by degrees the centre where I sat 
became the circumference, and I was whirled with it, my head 
opening and shutting, so that I could feel the cold air upon my 
brain; my breath getting short and difficult, my chest falling 
in as if crushed by a weight, and my stomach gnawed by rats. 
This went on for ages, yet I knew all the while where I was, and 
how the whole thing had happened ; and actually got up, rane 
the bell, and ordered some coffee, though not for an instant did 
the illusion cease, nor, so far as I ever learnt, did the servant 
who answered me discover any signs of my aberration. [ 
thought of the coffee as likely to relieve the sense of oppression 
and disorder, which was now fast dispelling the illusion by its 
reality. I felt my pulse, and tried to count 1t; 1 knew after- 
wards that it was full and rapid, but at the time the throbs 
were like the heaving of mountains, and the numbers would 


438 Hxperiences of Haschisch. 


multiply themselves; so that as I counted “ one, two, three,’ 

they became “one, two, three years, centuries, ages,” and I 
literally shrieked with the overpowerig thought that I had 

lived from all eternity, and should live ¢o all eternity in a palace 

of coloured stalactites, supported by shafts of emerald, resting 

on a sea of liquid gold, for this was now the appearance of 
things ; and the gnawing at my stomach suggested the idea that 

I should be starved to death and yet live, the deformed wreck 

of a deluded man. 

At this moment there was a tap at the door, and the servant 
entered with the coffee. It was in a huge tankard chased all 
over with dragons that extended all round the world, and I 
saw the odour of it play round her in circles of light, and for at 
least an hour she stood smiling and hesitating where to place it, 
because my table was covered with papers. I very calmly 
removed a few of the papers, and heaved a sigh that dissipated 
the dragons, made the odours fall in a shower of rain, and she 
put down the tray with a crash that made every bone in- my 
body vibrate as if struck by ten thousand hammers. I know 
not whether she was alarmed at my appearance, but she stood 
apparently aghast, and her rosy face expanded to the size of a 
balloon, and away she went with the rapidity of hghtning, with 
Mr. Green in the car, and I stood applauding in the midst of 
thousands of lamps, which I had time to note —as the scene con- 
tinued during a period which seemed indefinite—were all glow- 
worms, which I could touch, and they communicated to my 
fingers phosphorescent sparks, as if they had been rubbed with 
lucifer matches.* But I knew this was unreal; and I drank 
the coffee with the most perfect composure, though I felt it 
difficult to pour it out without spilling it, and the cup came to 
my lips as if it were the rim of a cauldron seething with a stew 
of spices and nepenthe, and amid the steam I could see the 
fierceness and tartness and prima materia cf Jacob Behmen, all 
displayed, so that there was an end of the mystery, and I could 
see into his brain, as he now seemed to be looking into mine. 

The moment I sipped the coffee it darted through me, and 
caused sensations of insupportable heat. The gnawing sensa- 
tion of the stomach and contraction of the chest gave way to a 
sense of pricking, most violent m my fingers and toes, and yet, 
though painful, this was all pleasant; and though I could now 
collectedly observe the objects around me, yet they would 
transport themselves to immeasurable distances, and keep con- 


* Only a few days before I had found some glow-worms in the garden, and on 
handling them found my fingers tipped with a dull phosphoric glow. This pro- 
bably gave rise to the illusion. In fact, I afterwards traced many of my sensations 
during the paroxysm to previous events, and I almost believe the illusions are the 
result of abnormal memory. 


Haperiences of Haschisch. A39 


tinually dilating in size; and though I looked at my watch, and 
saw that only forty minutes had elapsed, yet there was a secret 
persuasion in my mind that a period of at least forty centuries 
had gone by since I broke off a fragment of the cake, and com- 
mitted myself to this dream. 

There seemed to be now only one effect of the drug re- 
maining, and that was a sense of warmth all over the body and a 
tendency in my head to expand and fill the room. But my 
arms dropped down; I could not keep them up without great 
and painful effort. I finished the coffee, experienced less of 
the pricking sensation than at first, and then rose and went to 
bed. I could walk without difficulty, though my legs were 
immensely long, and felt as if they would presently be 
cramped, so that I should cry out. As I undressed myself, my 
clothes would fly from me far away into boundless space, and 
become wandering stars, the buttons of my vest glittered in the 
firmament like Orion, but much more vast and splendid. I did 
rot dare to look out of the wmdow; I endeavoured to control 
myself, for I began to feel a sense of dread. As I got into bed, 
the bed extended; as I lay down at full length I myself 
extended, and as soon as I shut my eyes I felt that I covered 
the space of the whole earth. I had a sense of indescribable 
pain all over me; my skin seemed to move to and fro upon my 
flesh, my head swelled to awful dimensions, and I parted in two 
from head to foot; became two persons, each throbbing, 
breathing hard, sighing loudly, and lost in a commixture of 
ethereal yet agonizing colours and sounds. ‘These seemed to 
contimue for ages; but I was really asleep, and I never could 
call to mind at what time I went to bed, or at what point of the 
illusion sleep came upon me, but I always supposed it to be 
when I felt myself parted in twain, and immersed in light and 
music. 

The next day I was awake early, and seemingly unrefreshed. 
I lay some hours pondering on the strange effects the drug had 
produced, and found 1¢ difficult for some time to prevent the in- 
trusion of some broken fragments of the visions from taking 
possession of me; but when I had dressed and breakfasted, [ 
felt as well as usual, and experienced no sensation whatever, 
which I could attribute to the effects of the drug. 

In a second experiment, when unaffected by fatigue, I 
noticed that every physical and mental power seemed inten- 
sified. The illusions were more agreeable, and more ridiculous. 
I was the subject of a thousand different moods in the course 
of a few seconds, which, as in the former cases, seemed ages, and 
these moods were nearly always swallowed up in some strange 
vision of walls receding, landscapes rollimg away to an horizon 
they never reached; skies opening to views of boundless space, 


44.0 Hexperiences of Haschisch. 


and sudden flashes before the eye of visible odours, sounds, and 
ideas. The most remarkable feature of this paroxysm was a 
feeling that my soul was too large for my body, and must 
expand it to suitable dimensions. This pained me. I gasped 
for my breath, and felt my skin stretch and crack, and my 
joints fly ike the snapping of huge beams of timber. These 
illusions became instantly the foundations of others. The crack- 
ing of my skin became suddenly a display of fireworks ; and 
the snapping of my joints, the beating of gongs. Still plea- 
surable sensations prevailed; old memories were revived as 
pictures, and in many respects the effects resembled those of 
opium. But with opium there is a more entire and settled 
acquiescence in the illusions, and the ideas are more connected 
and contmuous. With Haschisch there is a rapid succession 
of new scenes and startling combinations. When there is no 
pain the mind is hterally whirled away in a succession of ravish- 
ing delights, and is yet all the while conscious that the whole 
affair is a deception. ‘This paroxysm was soon over. It ended 
in a joyous feeling, i which life seemed lengthened out beyond 
the natural term, and all around me were objects of transcen- 
dant beauty, which I had the power of resolving into realities 
by an effort of the will; and it seemed that by successively . 
using this effort the spell was broken, and the effect of the 
drug entirely destroyed. 

The third dose was the last. I took it at mid-day, when in 
my usual health and spirits. Thinking that at the second 
experiment I did not take enough, I now weighed out feur 
scruples. JI at once went out, and proceeded across Finsbury 
Square, in the direction of the city. It seemed that about a 
quarter of an hour elapsed, during which I had felt a comfort- 
able sense of warmth, and an increasing tendency to open my 
mouth for air, though I was not aware of any difficulty of 
breathing. ‘Now,’ said I, “this is pleasant. I shall have a 
glorious time of it.”” Immediately a voice shouted ‘‘ There he 
goes; he’s always inflated!” I was at once conscious that I 
was observed by passers-by to be expanding rapidly ; and I felt 
myself rise from the ground, and walk above it. I halted, and 
by an effort of the mind collected myself, and found that the 
voice was that of a man selling some wares in Moorgate Street, 
who had not even noticed me, nor had any one else. But the 
thought occurred immediately, ‘This is a delusion, I am ex- 
panding, and cannot touch the ground.” Fora moment it might 
be, but it seemed an indefinite period, I saw the whole of the city 
spread out before me asa diorama. The church bells rang joy- 
ously ; the houses were illuminated ; the horses had gold and sil- 
ver trappings; the people were waltzing, singing, laughing, and 
playing with fireworks. J again exerted my will, and felt a disgust 


Hzperiences of Haschisch. AAI 


at the meanness of such a performance, so far short did it come of 
my own sense of sublimity; for I felt exalted, and had the utmost 
consciousness that I was able to separate the false from the true, 
though I really could not. I retraced my steps, and was accom- 
panied home with triumphal bands of music, shouts of triumph, 
running footmen, carrying coloured flambeaux ; and I gradually 
quickened my pace till I ran too, only touching the ground at 
intervals, but for the most part swimming through the air; yet 
knowing that I walked as other people, and knowing too, that 
the ordinary sounds and scenes of the streets were the founda- 
tions of the whole delusion. 

I reached home, and went to my study with a sense of satis- 
faction that I was now in a safer position than in the streets 
under such an influence. I sat down, and began to fill a pipe 
with Turkey tobacco. The pipe would lengthen out so that I 
could not reach the bowl, yet I did reach it, and in ike manner 
the tobacco jar seemed deep enough to serve for one of those 
used in “ Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves!” and it suddenly 
became a row of jars, and out of them leaped the forty thieves, 
with monkey’s faces and red jackets on.* I lighted my pipe, 
and as the cloud rose, I saw the party had all lighted their 
pipes, and were all proper Arabs, and I was in the midst, about 
to tell them a tale. 

By some strange freak they all suddenly collapsed and be- 
came the double of myself, and yet they continued smoking. 
I now saw in the stomach of my double a huge cake of 
Haschisch, which presently shot up into his brain, and I felt a 
hot throbbing of the head, and the thought occurred, “‘ Why, 
if he has the Haschisch, have I the burning, and how can that 
shadow smoke so calmly with a mass of poison in his brain ?” 
I rose and propounded to my double a problem, “‘ How, in the 
end, matter and spirit would be completely identified and made 
as one?” Iwas assured, in reply, that a sense of lightness 
would accomplish all, and I became light asa feather ; I swayed 
to and fro, I was lifted up, sparks flashed in my eyes, fire was 
emitted from my fingers, my head, my stomach ; and presently 
there was an awful crash, and I came to myself with the 
thought that 1 was going mad. © I saw the pipe in fragments at 
my feet, and the burning tobacco on the hearthrug. I coolly 
picked it up with my hand, took another pipe, dropped the 
smoking tobacco into it, and saw my double again. ‘This time 
he was the body and I was the shadow. I felt myself to be 
nothing ; I was the soul, and beside me was the body. I 
thought I had now solved the problem of matter and spirit. I 


* Thad seen a monkey on a barrel organ during my walk, and tested my 
sanity by noting all its zoological features, in order to determine its species ; but 
T lost it suddenly. 


VOL. II.-—NO. VI. H H 


442 Experiences of Haschisch. 


said, ‘‘ They are only two forms of the same fact,” and I laughed 
aloud, and they all laughed with me—the umbrellas, | mean— 
for my umbrella hung on a hat rail, and it peopled the 
room with offspring, and away went the furniture and orna- 
ments and books, all carrying umbrellas, dancing, whistling, 
and splashing the water from the pools upon me till I stamped 
my foot and smothered myself with sparks, and planets, and 
auroras, and sank back with a pain in the head that literally 
dispelled the delusions, and created a momentary alarm. I 
was now beset with prickings; I seemed to swell; I had a 
difficulty in breathmg—and yet it was a pleasant one. I put 
the tobacco away, inspected everything about me, and thought 
of trying the effects of reading aloud, and of attempting to 
sing; but I found my strength gone, I was spell-bound, so 
light I could not govern my movements, and by degrees I 
began to discover that the illusion was over, that it had left 
me tremulous, and with a low pulse, and requiring refresh- 
ment for my recovery. The first act on fairly reviewing the 
case was to seize the fragment of Haschisch that remained and 
fling it up the chimney. It went up, and did not even return 
again; Isaw it go into the sky and become a bird, for the 
chimney was glass, and I could see through all its windings. 
I now felt that madness had really come upon me, andI began 
to bathe my temples and drink soda-water, and soon discovered 
that I had had a second paroxysm, for there lay the Haschisch 
among the shavings in the fire-place. I applied a match, 
there was a glorious blaze, and | now saw it dissolve into 
a grand procession of coloured lights, that died away and 
left me quietly and collectedly reflecting on the whole affair. 
This was the third paroxysm. There was yet one more, 
but of a trivial nature, and I had now done with Haschisch. 

Having at that same period of my life frequently indulged 
in the use of opium, I can compare its effects with those of 
Haschisch, and I notice this great distinction as regards my own 
experiences:—With opium the mind and body become alike con- 
tented. Pain soon ceases after commencing to smoke a pipe in 
which a fragment of opium is mixed with the tobacco. On 
the other hand, Haschisch causes pain, and many unpleasant 
sensations are mingled with the most delightful of the visions 
it presents. Another distinction is that opium always causes 
some amount of nausea when its pleasurable effects are over. 
Haschisch leaves a slight depression, but the stomach does not 
appear to be affected ; but this might be different if the use of 
Haschisch became habitual. Another distinction is, that the 
mind can pursue a train of thought logically while influenced 
by opium, but Haschisch causes so many alternations of feeling, 
that sequence is destroyed. 


The Flying Inzards of the Secondary Rocks. 445 


Some readers of this may associate the subject with the 
recollection of an act of discourtesy on my part. On the 12th 
and 19th of June, 1850, I delivered two lectures at the London 
Mechanics’ Institution, im the course of which I gave an account 
of the effects of Haschisch on myself. Something hke a Haschisch 
society was formed there immediately afterwards, and I was 
requested to furnish the material for gratifying the wish of the 
young men to understand Haschisch at first-hand. A readiness 
to oblige led me astray; I consented. I obtained a large cube 
of Haschisch from Paris, and was about to send it on to the 
gentleman who had corresponded with me on the subject. I 
felt that I might be the author of incalculable mischief, so I 
destroyed the cake, and purposely sent no word of explanation or 
apology. I thought if I now refused they would get it by some 
other means; but if I remained silent, the enthusiasm for Has- 
chisch would die outin disappointment. I know notif my discre- 
tion at last was equal to my folly at first; but if any of those 
persons read this, | wish them to understand that it was for their 
good I adopted such a method of disappointing them. 


THE FLYING LIZARDS OF THE SECONDARY ROCKS. 


BY HENRY WOODWARD, F.Z.S. 
(With an Illustration.) 


Tue discovery of the remarkable fossil animal in the Litho- 
graphic Limestone of Solenhofen, which was described in the 
InreLLEcTUAL OssEerveR for December last, has naturally 
awakened great interest in all inquirers into Zoology. 

This interest has been still more strongly excited by the 
statement of the high authorities, Drs. A. Wagner and H. Von 
Meyer, that this creature was not a bird, but a long-tailed flymg 
lizard furnished with feathers. Having, in our description of 
the Arch@opteryx (as itis now definitely named), informed our 
readers of the positive reasons for regarding it as a bird, we 
are happy now to be able to show, on the other hand, that it 
is not a reptile. Since that description was in print, another 
instalment of Dr. Haberlein’s magnificent collection has been 
received at the British Museum, and in it are two most instruc- 
tive specimens of the very genus of long-tailed Pterodactyles, 
or Rhamphorhynchus, with which our fossil bird has been com- 
pared. These admirable specimens, the first ever brought to 
this country, have, together with the two slabs containing the 
Archeopteryx, been placed im the glass cases of the Geological 
Gallery, so that they are now within view of all who desire to 
see them. 


44.4, The Flying Inzards of the Secondary Rocks. 


The reading of Professor Owen’s paper before the Royal 
Society bemeg Beier ed until the 20th November, we were unable 
to use his valuable anatomical observations and comparisons in 
our article. It is with pleasure, therefore, that we now record 
that, in deference to H. Von Meyer (who had a year before de- 
scribed and named a single feather from the same quarry which 
furnished the fossil bird), Professor Owen has withdrawn his 
MS. name and adopted H. Von Meyer’s, Archaeopteryx ; giving 
it, however, the specific name of A. macrurus. The structural 
peculiarity of the fossil bird, in which it differs essentially from 
all known examples of the class Aves, is in the apparent pos- 
Session of two unguicular digits, armed with hooked claws, 
attached to the carpal bones of each fore-arm. These, we 
suggested, might be analogous to the spurs on the wing of the 
“Screamer” and “ Spur-winged goose;” but might more 
probably correspond with the prehensile thumb on the wing of 
the bat, or the small fingers of the Pterodactyle. 

Professor Owen considers the long tail to indicate a more 
generalized type than is seen in recent birds, which are special- 
ized by a form of tail which may be regarded as characteristic 
of the class. He cited imstances of the changes which the 
vertebree undergo in the embryo of recent birds as illustrative 
of their affinity with Archeopteryx. Thus, in the embryo of the 
rook twelve free caudal vertebra are found; but before matu- 
rity five or six of these have coalesced to form the sacrum, and 
three to make the terminal jomt of the tail. In the embryo 
-ostrich eighteen to twenty free vertebree occur, but seven or 
eight unite in the sacrum, and two or three in the last joint. 
This arrangement is also found in the embryonal development 
of the class of Fishes; for all fishes are Heterocercal (odd or 
~uneven-tailed) in the embryo, although most modern fishes are 
Homocereal (even-tailed) afterwards. Again, in the Reptilia we 
have many familiar instances of this general type of structure. 
In our common fresh-water T’ritons, or newts, the full-grown 
animal retains the long larval tail; but the long-tailed aquatic 
tadpole of the frog is gradually transformed into a tailless air- 
breathing animal, exhibiting probably the highest form of 
rep tilian structure. 

The Solenhofen bird furnishes a fresh exemplification of Von 
Baer’s law of archetypal forms,* and illustrates in a very striking 
manner that essential similarity of anatomical structure in all 
animals, which is, perhaps, the most convincing evidence of 
unity of creative design that can be presented to our minds. 

But we must not dwell upon this inviting subject, having to 
speak of those singular extinct creatures—reptiles in all their 


* Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, 1853. 


The Flying Lizards of the Secondary Rocks. AAS 


characteristics except the possession of the means of aérial loco- 
motion—the Pterodactyles. 

Amongst the Vertebrata the power of flight was formerly 
considered to belong especially and almost exclusively to birds. 
In the auks and penguins, however, we find birds whose wings 
are useless for flight, but serve admirably for swimming ; anid 
the ostrich, cassowary, emu, apteryx, etc., have no wings 
(properly so called) at all. 

We are all familiar with the Mammalian type of flyig ani- 
mals, the bats, in which the finger-bones and membrane of 
the fore-hand are modified, so as to form organs fitted for the 
purposes of sustamed and rapid flight. In the Galeopithecus 
and certain squirrels we have instances of other mammals im- 
perfectly adapted for flight by a wide expansion of the skin on 
both sides of the body, from the neck to the hinder extremities, 
which serves as a parachute. Short flights are likewise per- 
formed by some fishes (as the Dactylopterus, for instance), 
which have their pectoral fins enormously enlarged, and capable 
of sustaining the body for a brief interval when they leap out of 
the water into the air; but their respiratory arrangements pre- 
clude a long absence from their native element. 

In the Reptilian class we also have an illustration of imper- 
fect fight in the little Draco volans, a lizard, which has an 
expanded membrane on each side of its body, and supported by 
the horizontal extension of the first six pairs of false ribs. Itis, 
however, incapable of motion, and only sufficient to buoy up the 
creature In springing from bough to bough in pursuit of insects. 
That this capability of flight, which attains its highest develop- 
ment in birds whose respiration and circulation is the most 
active of all “‘warm-blooded’’ animals, should be assumed by 
certain mammals may seem remarkable, but that we should 
discover it exercised in a high degree of perfection among 
ep ee class so sluggish in the respiratory functions that 
they have been desionated ““ cold-blooded’”’—seems at first in- 
credible ; deed, the fossil remains of these curious creatures 
when first discovered gave rise to the wildest speculations. In 
1784, Collini, an eminent German naturalist, attributed them to 
Unbekanntes Seethier (unknown sea-beasts); Hermann, to a 
creature “between a mammal and a bird;” Blumenbach, to a 
“‘ water-bird ;”’ Spix, to a species of vampire bat. 

Tt is to the illustrious author of the Ossemens Fossiles 
that we are indebted for the first true determination of the place 
in nature which these flyme Saurians held. It was Cuvier 
who, in 1801, described the “Reptile volant’? from the 
lithographic stone, and i 1809* he gave it the appropriate 


* Ann, du Museum, xii. p. 424, t, 31. 


44.6 The Flying Lizards of the Secondary Rocks. 


PTERODACTYLES, FROM THE LITHOGRAPHIC LIMESTONE. 


AE : 


: 
aE 
Ue 


HWdek 


The Flying Inzards of the Secondary Rocks. 44.7 


name of “ Pterodactyle” (wing-finger), by which the group of 
extinct winged lizards is still called. 

Although by far the most perfect specimens of the order 
Pterosauria have hitherto been obtained from the Upper Oolite 
of Germany, its remains occur in various strata from the Upper 
Keuper to the Chalk—proving its existence through that great 
period of geological time represented by the entire Secondary 
rocks—and in many localities both in this country and in 
Germany. 

Both the examples figured in the accompanying woodcut 
are from the Lithographic Limestone near Hichstatt, in Bavaria, 
and are selected as illustrating two extreme forms of Pterodac- 
tyles in structure and size from that place. Fig. 1 is among the 
most perfect, as well as the smallest specimen known—P. brevi- 
rostris, S6mm., and also nearly the first discovered species. It 
1s represented of the natural size /* 

Fig. 2 is the almost perfect skeleton of Rhamphorhynchus 
Gemmingti, Meyer, reduced to one-third the natural size (t.1x. f. 
1), from H. Von Meyer’s magnificent work on the Reptiles of 
the Lithographic Stone of Germany and France, containing 
twenty-one double folio plates, published in 1860. ‘This speci- 
men was discovered in 1854. Fig.3isa conjectural restoration 
of fig. 2. 

The specimens of Rhamphorhynchus in the British Museum 
consist of one, in which the lower jaw, the long wing-fingers, and 
the hind limbs attached to the pelvis, with the perfect tail, are 
beautifully exhibited ; and a larger individual, having the head, 
tail, fingers, and both feet very well preserved. Numerous por- 
tions of Pterodactyles have been found in Germany and elsewhere, 
but the two first discovered, P. longirostrist and P. crassirostris,t 
Goldf., bemg almost entire skeletons, may still be considered 
among the most important specimens. We have in the National 
Collection casts of both these, besides the actual remains of Ptero- 
dactyles from the Lias of Lyme Regis, the Stonesfield Slate and 
Cambridge Greensand, etc., and those lately acquired from 
Solenhofen, and it is to be hoped we shall have, when sufficient 
. space is allotted for Palzeontology, copies of all the remarkable 
specimens of this class which can be procured. Without entering 
unnecessarily into anatomical details, we can easily perceive 
many striking peculiarities of structure in the skeletons before us. 
The dissimilarity of the skulls of figs. 1 ana 2 is very notice- 
able, and may be regarded as indicative of differences of habit 
in respect of food, and the method of obtaining it, as is the 


* Sémmerring, Munich Acad., 1820. Cuvier, Oss. Foss., 1836, pl. 251, f. 7. 
Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii., pl. 22, f. O. 

+ Cuvier, Oss. Foss., p. 359, t. 23. f. 1. 

£ Goldfuss, in Leopold Akad., xv. p. 63, t. 7—9. 


AAS The Flying Inzards of the Secondary Rocks. 


case with analogous modifications in the form and strength of 
the beaks ot f birds, and in the jaws and teeth of animals. 

Professor Owen* suggests that P. brevirostris and another 
species (P. Meyert) were ~ probably immature Pterodactyles, as 
they show the large cranium, short jaws, and unossified ster- 
num, characteristic of the early period of life in crocodiles of 
the present day.t 

But we find in this order such singular modifications, both 
in the dentition and the form and length of the jaws, as to lead 
to the supposition that it might include (like the Bats) genera 
with insectivorous, carnivorous, and possibly even frugivorous 
habits. The head, however, has always a more or less elon- 
gated form, and is lightened by large vacuities imterposed 
between the nostril and the orbit. The vertebre of the neck 
are about seven in number, and united by ball and socket joints, 
the hollow beimg in front. In almost all known specimens the 
neck vertebrze are the largest, and the entire series gradually 
diminishes to the sacrum, and terminates with a more or less 
long and slender tail. 

The fore-arm consists of a short humerus, a radius and 
ulna of nearly equal size, and placed closely together; carpal 
and metacarpal bones, supporting four fingers, armed with 
claws, and a fifth or outermost digit (consisting of four joimts), 
which is elongated like the four digits in the bat, and serves 
to sustain the membranous wing upon which the animal was 
upborne in flight. 

The head of the humerus was supported by the union of the 
coracoid and scapula; and although the furculwm, or ‘ merry- 
thought” (so characteristic a bone in birds), is absent, we often 
find the sternum more or less perfectly preserved, and furnished 
with a very deep keel for the attachment of strong pectoral 
muscles by which the expansive wings of the Pterodactyle 
were moved. 

“It is almost superfluous to remark that the evidence of the 
fore limbs had shown the Pterodactyle to have been a flying 
animal long before. anything was precisely known as to its 
sternum. ‘The development of the keel of the sternum im the 
Pterodactyle exceeds that of any of the bat tribe ; and 1t may be 
confidently concluded that the flight of the winged reptile 
might have been at least as swift and of as long continuance as 
in the Pteropi. But, viewing the lightness of the bones of the 
Pierodactyle, and the relatively g oreater development of the in- 
terpectoral crest of the sternum, “Professor Owent believes it to 
have been a creature of more extensive, continuous, and power- 


* Paleontology, second edition, 1861, p. 274. 
+ Gray, On Skulls of Young Garhial Bis Crocodile. British Association, 1862. 
i; Palsontl. Society, Suppt. No. iii., Fossil Reptilia Cretaceous Formation, p. 11. 


The Flying [izards of the Secondary Rocks. 449 


ful flight than is now enjoyed by any bat; and the Pterodactyles 
may at least have been as capable of migration as the great 
frugiverous Chiroptera. 

“The structural affinities, however, of the Pterodactyles to 
the cold-blooded air-breathers, and their analogy in wing struc- 
ture to the bats, indicate that they might have possessed the 
faculty of becoming torpid, and of so existing during a period 
when their food in a given locality was not attainable.” 

In the smaller species (as fig. 1) the weakness of the pos- 
terior extremities is less apparent, but in larger ones (as fig. 2) 
the increase in length of the fore-arms is not followed by a 
proportionate strengthening of the hind limbs; on the contrary, 
they seem to become attenuated as if from disuse. The pelvis 
in Pterodactyles is very feeble, and (as in recent sauria) seems 

-to be anchylosed to not more than three sacral vertebree. 

The leg is composed of femur and tibia (with traces of a 
fibula ?). ‘The tarsus can also be made out in some specimens. 
The hind foot seems composed, in some species, of four toes 
only, not five,* supported upon long and slender metatarsals, 
and numbering 1, 2, 3, and 4 joints respectively, as in the 
digits of the forehand. 

In Rhamphorhynchus (fig. 2) the false ribs are extended 
as if for the attachment of the wing membrane, for which the 
feeble pelvis and hind imbs seem but ill adapted. 

We have presented to us in this genus probably the most 
remarkable form of all the Pterodactyles, one furnished with 
a long stiff tail, exceeding the entire length ofits body. It is 
impossible to examine this smgular prolongation of the caudal 
vertebree, which is embedded in a compact mass of minute ossi- 
fied fibres (as shown in our figure of the natural size), without 
bemeg at once impressed with the conviction that its use was 
analogous to the long tail-feathers of the frigate bird, acting 
not only as a powerful rudder (especially if 1t was furnished 
with a crested fold of membrane, as in the tails of many recent 
sauria), but also as an equipoise to the long and pointed 
wings, which in life must have measured more than four feet 
from tip to tip. The Rhamphorhynchus, when seated with closely 
folded wings, would probably have presented a very similar ap- 
pearance with that of this ocean wanderer. 

Beside the tiny Pterodactyle (fig. 1) there is another almost 
equally small (P. Meyeri), which, amongst other interesting cha- 
racteristics, possesses the circle of sclerotic eye-plates. These 
bony plates occur in certain other reptilia, as the Hnaliosauria, 
or sea lizards, and in turtles; and are also found in many birds. 
Their use appears to be “to vary the sphere of distinct vision, 


* In the restoration given of P. crassirostris by Goldfuss in Akad. der Wiss 
(Joe. cit.) he attributes five toes to the hind limb. 


A50 The Flying Lizards of the Secondary Rocks. 


in order to descry their prey at long or short distances. These 
bony plates also assist to maintain the prominent position of the 
front of the eye, which is so remarkable in birds.””* 

The oldest known Pterodactylous remains appear to have 
been obtained from the Upper Keuper of Wurtemberg, but they 
are of only a fragmentary nature. The Dimorphodon (Pterodac- 
tylus) macronyz, Buckld., from the Lias of Lyme-Regis, is the 
oldest found in this country. In this species there is an unusual 
provision for giving support and movement to a large head at 
the extremity of a long neck, by the occurrence of bony tendons 
running parallel to the cervical vertebra, like the tendons that 
pass along the backs cf many birds, and those figured in the 
tail of Rhamphorhynchus. The expanse of the wings of this 
creature equalled those of the Rhanvphorhynchus, but its Jaws 
were eight inches long, and it is not supposed to have had a 
long tail. Beside a few large, long, and sharp-pointed teeth 
at the fore part of the jaws, it was furnished with a close-set 
row of short, compressed, very small, lancet-shaped teeth. 

Fragmentary remains of Pterodactyles also occur in the 
Stonesfield slate of this country (one of the Oolitic series), and 
there is evidence of the existence of the same genus in the 
Wealden strata, but the species must have been of a larger size. 

It is in the cretaceous series of England that the most 
gigantic specimens of flying lizards have been met with. 

We are indebted to Lucas Barrett, Esq., F.G.S., the present 
director of the Geological Survey of the West Indies, and Jas. 
Carter, Esq., M.R.C.S., of Cambridge, for the discovery of 
remains of Pterodactyles in the Cambridge Greensand. 

These bones, which always occur detached and much broken 
and water-worn, present, in the restorations of Professor Owen, 
proportions so gigantic that I cannot do better than quote his 
own calculations upon the subject, extracted from No. 1 Sup- 
plement to Palzeontological Society’s Memours for 1859, “ Fossil 
Reptilia of Cretaceous Formation.” 

Dimensions of Pterodactylus Sedqwickii, Owen, Greensand, 
Cambridge :— 

Feet. Inches. 
“* Humerus 


Radius 
Metacarpus 
1st Phalanx 
2nd 
ord 


4th 


3d 
a) 


a) 


— . 
21 ead ela 
a Homowako 


Total of one wing 


— 


* Yarrel On the Anatomy of Birds of Prey. Zool. Journal, vol. iii., p. 181. 


The Flying Lizards of the Secondary Rocks. 451 


““ Supposing the breadth of the Pterodactyle between the 
two shoulder-joimts to be eight inches, and allowing two inches 
for the carpus and the cartilages of the joints of the different 
bones in each wing, we may then calculate that a large P. Sedq- 
wickit would be upborne on an expanse of wings not less than 
22 feet from tip to tip.” 

In the Paleeontographical Society’s Publications, Supple- 
ment No. 3, already referred to, Professor Owen says, ‘ [ am 
now enabled to adduce, from more recently acquired additions to 
the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge, evidences of a much 
larger Pterodactyle, distinct from any previously known, and 
which must have acquired at least double the dimensions of 
P. Sedqwickii.”’ 

Professor Owen describes and figures remains of two other 
species of chalk Pterodactyles, P. Cuvierit and P. compressirostris, 
larger than P. giganteus of Bowerbank. ‘This, however, still 
belongs to the race of the giants. 

Hyidence of a long tail in the Chalk species has not yet been 
met with; but from the number of detached caudal vertebree 
found in the Cambridge Greensand, Professor Owen believes 
the P. Sedqwickw “‘ had a long but moveable tail.” 

When looking at the skeleton of the Pterodactyle one is 
apt to fancy, for an instant, “here is a reptile trying to become 
a bird ;” and the first glance at the Archeopteryx might sug- 
gest the notion that here it had succeeded in the attempt ; but 
a more careful consideration of the subject will not fail to 
convince us that the Pterodactyle bird and bat are no less 
essentially members of distinct classes of animals because they 
are gifted with the common faculty of flight. 

Thirty-seven species of flyme lizards are known and de- 
scribed; how many individuals have been discovered it is 
impossible to say. There is every reason, however, to believe, 
from the frequent occurrence of their remains, that they were 
very abundant in the Mesozoic period. 

We are not justified, however, in considering that they alto- 
gether took the place of birds; on the contrary, the discovery 
of the Archcopteryx proves them to have been contempora- 
neous races so far back as the upper Oolitic age. 

All the mammals we are acquainted with in rocks of 
the Secondary period belonged to small animals obscurely 
resembling the lowest of existing quadrupeds. ‘Their place in 
nature appears to have been filled by orders of reptiles, some 
of them now extimct. The gigantic Dinosaurians represented 
the land quadrupeds; Hnaliosaurians took the place of whales, 
and the Pterodactyles of bats, and partially of birds, thus realiz- 
ing Dr. Mantell’s vision of an “ Age of Reptiles.” 


452 Perwian-bark Trees and their Transplantation. 


PERUVIAN-BARK TREES AND THEIR 
TRANSPLANTATION. 


BY BERTHOLD SEEMANN, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 


Many years before the Irish famine William Cobbett pre- 
dicted that calamity, and many years before the present cotton 
distress, far-seeing minds foretold that catastrophe. Nothing 
could be more sound than the principles upon which these 
unheeded warnings were based—the uncertainty always at- 
tendant on a single source of swpply. Cobbett knew that 
potatoes, like all other organisms, are subject to occasional 
attacks of diseases and wide-spread epidemics; and that a 
whole people, ike the Irish, relying for their staple food upon 
these roots, must sooner or later share the fate of the product 
upon which they have placed their main dependence, and 
with the fortunes of which they have intimately associated 
themselves. It was the same with cotton. Far-seeimg men 
could perceive the political thunderstorm gathering in the 
United States ; and knowing that all Lancashire, all Hngland 
—in fact, all the world—relied upon this one source of supply 
for cotton, they denounced the recklessness of such improvi- 
dence in the strongest terms, formed associations for obtaining 
the raw material from other countries than the United States, 
and in speech and print did all in their power to arouse 
public attention. Yet ag long as the mills were busy, and 
millions of bales were coming in without interruption, no 
notice was taken of their endeavours to stave off the fearful 
doom to which our manufacture population was drifting. 
Now that the calamity has at length overtaken us, and 
thousands upon thousands of pounds are spent in keeping 
the workpeople from actual starvation, everybody remembers 
hearing Cassandra’s voice. If but a hundredth part of what 
1s now required to feed the hungry spmners had been devoted. 
to encouraging the growth of cotton im the various tropical 
and subtropical possessions of Great Britain, Lancashire dis- 
tress would never have been heard of, and manufacturers 
would have gradually relied upon the produce of free labour 
instead of paying a premium to slavery. 

Mankind is threatened by a third danger, which may prove 
equally great, equally fatal in its consequences. Most men are 
probably not aware of the vast benefits they owe to the dis- 
covery of the Peruvian bark, the produce of various species of 
Clinchona, and the alkaloids, quinine and chinchonine, em- 
bedded in it. History takes no notice of the death of count- 
less mediocrities from fever and ague, but fails not to record 
that Alexander the Great died of the common remittent 


Perwvian-bark Trees and their Transplantation. A453 


fever at Babylon, and that Oliver Cromwell was carried off 
by ague. A few doses of quinine might have saved their 
lives, and compelled Clio to make very different entries 
in her diary than she has done. ‘The whole Walcheren 
expedition was saved from destruction by a Yankee skipper 
arriving just in the nick of time witha supply of this medicine. 
In order to hold many important tropical possessions it is not 
only necessary for our race to keep the powder dry, but also 
take care not to let the quinine run too low. In fact the drug 
is almost as indispensable to mankind as air itself, and aided 
by this silent agent Huropeans have been able to establish 
happy homes, busy factories, and flourishing colonies in dis- 
tricts which, without this invaluable aid, would have simply 
become their graveyards. Our only wonder is how we could 
ever have done without it, and what would become of us if the 
supply should ever fail. And the supply does begin to fail, 
fail rapidly. It is known that 1,200,000 lbs. of Peruvian 
bark (meaning by that term all medicinal barks produced 
by Chinchona trees) are annually imported into England; and 
it is estimated that no less than 3,000,000 lbs., and probably 
a much greater quantity, are consumed every year throughout 
the world. The demand is daily increasing, and the drain upon 
the South American forests, including those of New Granada, 
Hcuador, Peru, and Bolivia, has now been going on for more 
than two centuries, though not to such an extent as at pre- 
sent. ‘The better kinds, those yielding the largest quantity of 
alkaloids, are very local in their geographical range at present, 
often limited to very circumscribed districts ; and though we 
speak of Chinchona forests, it is absolute delusion to fancy that 
these trees, like our pines and oaks, form entire woods by 
themselves. On the contrary, they are intermingled with 
other trees, and generally occur im isolated specimens. The 
bark is collected by ignorant Indians, who, improvident of the 
future, strip the tree anyhow, and in most imstances without 
properly felling it, so that 1t begins to rot after being robbed 
of its produce, and has no power to put forth new shoots from 
the root. Thus, what with the excessive and unceasing de- 
mand for bark, and the reckless manner of collecting it, large 
tracts of country, formerly famous for their abundant yield, 
are now entirely denuded of almost every trace of Chinchona 
vegetation. The neighbourhood of Loxa in Ecuador was at no 
very remote period one of the principal localities for several of 
our best barks ; but when, ia 1847, Captain Pim and I visited 
the place, we had to goa considerable distance from the town 
before we obtained even the sight of a single specimen. 
Stimulated py the present high prices the bark collectors have 
penetrated the remotest districts, explored wilds probably 


454 Perwvian-bark Trees and their Transplantation. 


never trodden by the foot of the white man; and if by any 
chance they are lost, or their provisions fall short, death is 
their mevitable doom. Dr. Weddell describes a poor fellow 
who thus had ended his days, far away from home and friends. 
His corpse was nearly naked, and covered with myriads of 
insects, the stings of which had tormented his last moments. 
Close by was a hastily-constructed hut, his clothes, his 
knife, and an earthen pot, showing the remnants of the last 
meal of a man in search of medicme which was to save the life 
of others. 

The Indians, though at present the best cascarilleros, or 
bark collectors, and intimately acquainted with the names and 
commercial value of the different sorts, are supposed by some 
to have been formerly ignorant of the great therapeutic qua- 
lities of these drugs. They called the Loxa bark ‘ Quina- 
quina”’ (bark of barks); and Markham has well shown that 
in the Quichua language, to which the term belongs, a 
doubling of a name is an indication that the plant to 
which it applies possesses, in the estimation of the Indians, 
some medicinal virtue. Now, we know of no other use of the 
Lioxa bark except that derived from its febrifuge properties, 
and in my mind there is little doubt that it was to this the 
doubling of the name must be attributed. Those who have 
had practical experience in gathering information about medi- 
cinal plants from the lips of barbarous people, as I have had, 
will not be surprised at the secresy with which the knowledge 
of the use of Quinaquina was preserved. Asa rule, the most 
sovereign remedies are never revealed to a stranger, nor 
known to the people at large, and no bribe will induce the 
““medical profession’? amongst the Indians to be otherwise 
than reserved when questioned by Huropeans. Madame de 
Genlis, in her ‘‘ Zuma,” builds the plot of her charming little 
story on a conspiracy of the Indians, the object of which was to 
allow the climate to destroy their Spanish enemy by withholding 
the knowledge of the bark when fever attacked them. I am 
aware that this is not history, but I have always thought, con- 
sidering the Indian character, and the strong desire of the 
aboriginal population to get rid of their foreign oppressors, 
that Madame de Genlis had here hit upon the true solution of 
the question why so many years elapsed before Huropeans 
became acquainted with this bark of barks. 

It is not until the year 1630, that Don Juan Lopez de 
Canizares, the Spanish Corregidor of Loxa, being ill of inter- 
mittent fever, an Indian is said to have revealed to him the 
virtues of the bark, and instructed him in the proper way of 
administering it. About eight years later the wife of the fourth 
Count of Chinchon, Viceroy of Peru, was suffering from the 


Perwvian-bark Trees and their Transplantation. ADS 


same complaint, when the Loxa Corregidor forwarded a parcel 
of powdered quinaquina as a sovereign and never-failing remedy 
for “ tertiana.”” It effected a complete cure, and the particular 
plant which had this honour, and_ yields the true and original 
Peruvian bark is, as Howard justly concludes, the Chahwarguera 
variety of Chinchona Condaminea, akind containing a large per- 
centage of Chinchonidine (the importance of which is just 
beginning to be recognized). itis therefore not to quinine, 


CHINCHONA CONDAMINEA, VAR. CHAHUARGUERA (reduced one-half). 


but to Chinchonidine that the countess’s cure was due. That 
lady on returning to Spain in 1640, took with her a quantity 
of the healing bark, and was thus the first to mtroduce this 
invaluable medicine into Hurope. Hence it was sometimes 
called Countess’s bark, or Countess’s powder; and hence, to 
commemorate the event, Linnzus named the genus of plants 
producing these barks, Chinchona. By some accident, not 
isolated in his nomenclature, he mis-spelt the name, writing 


4.56 Peruvian-bark Trees and their Transplantation. 


Cinchona, and until a recent period no attempt was made to 
correct it. 

The Jesuits in their wanderings through South America 
became well acquainted with bark, and in 1670 they sent 
parcels of it to Rome, whence it was distributed by Cardinal 
de Lugo amongst the members of their socict ty throughout 
Europe, and obtained the name of Jesuit’s bark, or Cardinal’s 
bark. It was in consequence of this patronage that bigoted 
Protestants refused to avail themselves of a medicine favoured 
by the Roman Catholics, just as staunch Catholics objected 
to the use of beer, an infusion of barley flavoured with hop, 
instead of sweet gale, and other herbs, as in the case of ale, 
because, as an old song has it, “with this same beer came in 
heresy here.” At the time of Cromwell’s death from ague, the 
use of Peruvian bark was actually known in London. In 1678 
Louis XIV. bought the secret of preparing quinaquina from Sir 
Robert Talbot, an English physician, for two thousand louis 
dors, a title, and a large pension, and from that time down- 
wards, the use of this medicine, though often and violently 
opposed by practitioners, gradually made its way into every 
country and all circles of society. The only people who now 
entertain any prejudice against its administration are the natives 
of those very countries from which we obtain our supplies. The 
medical men of Guayaquil, for instance, must call it by some 
other name in their prescriptions, or else patients object to 
taking it. The Spanish people throughout America have a 
deeply-rooted theory that all diseases are referable to the 
influence of either heat or cold, and, confounding cause and 
effect, they pronounce all fevers to proceed from heat. Bark 
they justly believe to be very heating, and hence their prejudice 
against its application m fever—a prejudice which seems to 
have communicated itself even to the Indians. 

Until the present century Peruvian bark was administered 
in its crude state; and it was not until 1816 that a Portuguese 
surgeon, Dr. Gomez, succeeded in isolating the febrifugal ‘prin- 
ciple, hinted at by Dr. Duncan at Edinburgh, and named by the 
former Chinchonine. But the final discovery of quinine is due 
to two French chemists, Pelletier and Caventou, in 1820, who 
considered it a vegetable alkaloid analogous to morphine and 
strychnine, and they afterwards found that the febrifugal prin- 
ciple was seated in two alkaloids, quinine and chinchonine, 
separate or together. In 1829 Pelletier discovered a third 
alkaloid, aricine, derived from Chinchona pubescens, and at pre- 
sent of no known medicinal value. The different organic con- 
stituents of Chinchona bark are :— 

Quina A . Kuinovic acid. 
Chinchonia . Chinchona red. 


Peruvian-bark Trees and their Transplantation. 457 


Aricina  . . A yellow colouring matter. 
Quimdia . . A green fatty matter. 
Chinchonidia . Starch. 

Quinic acid . Gum. 

Tannic acid ao) Leni. 


Quinine is a white substance, without smell, bitter, fusible, 
crystallized, with the property of left-handed rotatory polariza- 
tion. The salts of quinine are soluble in water, alcohol, and 
ether. Chinchonidine differs from quimine in being less soluble 
in water, altogether insoluble in ether, and having the property 
of right-handed rotatory polarization, agreeing in the latter re- 
spect with quininine, a substance which forms salts like those of 
quinine, and becomes green by successive additions of chlorine 
and ammonia. In this changing of colour it differs essentially 
from chinchonidine, which has not the property of turning green, 
and forms a sulphate almost exactly like that of quinine. 

In many distant parts quinine is equal in value to gold, and 
there is hardly a chemist of eminence who has not tried his 
hand at producing these alkaloids artificially. We have of 
late years obtained so many wonderful results in the laboratory 
that we should not treat their endeavours as aiming at any 
thing beyond their reach. ‘There is just a possibility that one 
day the dreams of alchemists may be realized by the baser 
metals being converted into gold, and the artificial production 
of quinine ranks in the same category. But these alkaloids are 
such complex atoms that there is very little probability of their 
ever being obtained from any sources save Nature's own work- 
shop. Such being the present aspect of this question, it becomes 
a matter of the highest imterest to mankind that the even flow 
of their source should not be interrupted. 

The genus Chinchona of Linneeus belongs to the Chinchon- 
aceze, the same natural order which embraces the Coffee, 
Tpecacuanha, and many other important productions. All the 
species, and there are a great number, are either trees or large 
shrubs, and their general aspect may be compared to our beech, 
whilst a flowerme branch might be likened to that of a lilac. 
The bark is smooth, or in the older trees more or less rugged, 
often covered with various lichens, which at one time were 
thought to be excellent marks for distinguishing the different 
sorts of barks, but which are now accounted of little value in 
pharmacological determination. The wood is at first white, but 
afterwards assumes a yellowish tinge; itis of beautiful grain, 
and takes a ready polish. The leaves are opposite, entire, 
either glabrous, or more or less covered with hair, and on the 
under side, in the axils of the veins, either covered with 
serobicule or destitute of them. A theory had gained ground 
that the absence of these scrobicule proved the worthlessness 

VOL, II.—NO. VI. ii 


AD58 Perwian-bark Trees and ther Transplantation. 


of a species for all febrifugal purposes, but this theory has of 
late been demolished, some utterly worthless species having 
scrobicule, and some really valuable ones, for stance, Ohin- 
chona succirubra, the Red bark, not having them. The petiole 
is rather long, and supported by stipules. The flowers, ar- 
ranged in cymose panicles, are white, pink, or purple, and often 
sweetly scented. The calyx is five-toothed. The corolla hypo- 
crateriform, five-lobed, and having inside five stamens. ‘The 
capsule is ovate, oblong, or linear-lanceolate, crowned with the 
remnant of the calyx—two-celled, many-seeded and opening from 
the base to the apex. This latter technicality was first pointed 
out by Linnzeus in his tenth edition of his Genera Plantarum ; 
but in consequence of information, probably received from Mutis 
of Bogota, that the capsules opened sometimes from the top to 
the base, as well as from the base to the top, the character was 
disregarded until restored by Endlicher and Klotzsch; Dr. 
Karsten has called its validity once more in question, but many 
botanists are inclined to think that the exceptional cases brought 
forward in support of his opinion may be explained away by 
regarding them as the result of mechanical, rather than organic 
dehiscence. Commercially, this technical point (by which Chin- 
chonas principally differ from Ladenbergias) is of the utmost 
value, as all the Chinchonaceous plants, the capsules of which 
open from the apex to the base, may, in a practical point of 
view, according to Howard’s investigation, be considered as not 
producing alkaloids. The seeds are flat, winged, and so light 
that one would fancy that a breath of wind could disperse them 
over large tracts of country, and that by means of these pecu- 
harities the different species of Chinchona enjoyed a very wide 
geographical range, while exactly the contrary is the case, all 
the species being extremely local. 

The Chinchona trees range from the 19th degree of 8. to 
the 10th degree of N. latitude, following the almost semicircular 
curve of the Cordillera of the Andes over 1740 miles of latitude. 
The most favourable conditions of their growth are, as Markham 
has summed them up, a continuous vegetation; a mean tem- 
perature, varying according to species, from 60° to 70° Fahr., an 
almost constant supply of moisture, and an elevation of from 
5000 to 8000 ft.; some species, however, descending below 
2500, and some ascending to 9000 ft. Their favourite haunts 
are ravines and valleys, or slopes of mountains. ‘There they 
grow, surrounded by the most magnificent scenery in the world, 
midst tree-ferns, arborescent passion-flowers, Melastomacee, 
and allied Chinchonaceous genera. 

There are five principal regions from which our present 
supply of bark is derived, viz., the New Granada region, the 
Red-bark region on the western slopes of Chimborazo, the 


Peruvian-bark Trees and thew Transplantation. 4.59 


Crown-bark region in the province of Loxa (Hcuador), the Grey- 
bark region of Huanuco in Northern Peru, and the Calisaya 
region in Southern Peru and Bolivia. The species inhabiting 
most of these regions have lately been studied with more than 
usual accuracy and minuteness. Those of New Granada have been 
investigated for many years by Mr. Lindig, and the results have 
been made known by Dr. Karsten in his Flora Columbiana. 
The Red-bark region has been visited by Messrs. Spruce and 
Cross, both of whom wrote excellent reports on it. Southern 
Ecuador and Northern Peru have been most ably handled by 
Mr. J. H. Howard in his Illustrations of the Nueva Quinologia of 
Pavon, a work originally embracing some of the results of the 
Spanish expedition to South America under Ruiz, Pavon, and 
Tafalla, but left unpublished until Mr. Howard took them in 
hand, embellished them with splendid plates, and gave them 
to the world with a long series of annotations such as only a 
perfect master of the subject could supply. The Caravaya 
region in Bolivia and Southern Peru, first explored by Heenke, 
has lately been visited by Mr. Markham, whose investigations 
have been published in his Travels in Peru and India, a 
volume full of the latest and soundest information on everything 
connected with the history, conditions of growth, and cultivation 
of Chinchonas. Dr. Weddell, an English botanist, residing in 
France, had previously given us a monograph principally on the 
Bolivian species, which he has studied during his extensive 
travels in their native country. The literature relating to 
Chinchonas is an extremely rich one; even when, in 1826, 
Bergen published his monograph, his catalogue of all written 
on the subject extended over seventy-two pages, and included 
670 different publications. Since then numberless additions 
have been made, but none of them exceed in value those of 
Karsten, Markham, Howard, and Weddell. 

The constant drain for Chinchona bark upon South America 
has already been pointed out, and the exhaustion of the forests 
is proceeding at so rapid a rate that the utter annihilation of 
the trees, local as many species are, is merely a matter of time. 
Indeed, the days are fast approaching when the poor fever- 
stricken patient will sigh in vain for the only remedy that can 
afford a speedy and certain relief. The Republics in whose 
dominion Nature has placed these invaluable forests are too 
weak and ignorant to pass or enforce laws for their proper 
protection and administration, and too indolent to make plan- 
tations which would ensure our future supplies of bark. Under 
such circumstances German, Dutch, and Hnglish men of 
science—I shail not discuss the question of who was the first-— 
have for years advocated the necessity of introducing the bark 
trees into the higher mountains of the Hast and West Indies, 


460 Peruvian-bark Trees and thew Transplantation. 


but for a long time their memoirs were shelved by men in office. 
In 1852, however, the Dutch government was induced by 
Mr. Pahud, then Minister of the Colonies, to send Dr. Hasskarl, 
a German botanist, to Peru in order to obtain seeds and plants 
of the Chinchonas for transplantation to the Upper mountains of 
Java. Unfortunately Dr. Hasskarl got hold of a species which 
he believed to be a valuable one, but which, after millions of it 
had been raised in Java, proved to be Chinchona Pahudiana, 
utterly useless for all practical purposes. ‘The really valuable 
species the Dutch did not succeed, and have not succeeded to 
this day, in propagating to any extent, though under skilful 
treatment they may be multiplied rapidly, even the leaf-buds 
striking readily. But considering that the whole cultivation 
was necessarily an experiment, their progress was sufficiently 
encouraging to back the proposal which first Dr. Royle, and 
afterwards with better success of being accepted, Mr. Markham 
made to the British government to introduce the Chinchona 
trees to India, Ceylon, and Jamaica. In 1859 the Secretary of 
State for India charged Mr. Markham, who was thoroughly fami- 
har with South America and the Spanish and Quichua languages, 
with the duty of superintending the introduction. ‘The latter 
at once submitted a plan which, if carried out in its integrity, 
would have been productive of the best results. It was to send 
a competent botanist to every one of the five great Chinchona 
regions, and have a swift steamer on the coast of South America 
to receive the seeds and plants collected, and convey them direct 
to the Hast Indies, where about £40,000 are annually spent to 
purchase quinine for the troops and officials. A false system 
of economy induced the India office to withhold its sanction, 
not only to the exploration of the New Granada and Loxa 
regions, but also to the use of a steamer, the most important 
part of the whole plan. Messrs. Spruce and Cross undertook 
to forward the product of the Red-bark region, Mr. Pritchett 
those of the Huanuco district, whilst Mr. Markham himself 
penetrated into Caravaya, far beyond the boundaries of even 
Spanish civilization. Though the utmost secresy was observed, 
the real object of these explorations soon spread about, and the 
-narrow-minded South American governments passed laws pro- 
hibiting the exportation of seeds or plants. Mr. Markham had 
just collected a sufficient number of the Chinchona Calisaya and 
other valuable species, when the jealousy of the municipal 
Juntas compelled him to beat a hasty retreat, and, avoiding 
the regular roads, make the best of his way over the frozen 
summits of the Cordilleras to the port of Islay. 

Though Mr. Markham’s well-conceived plan was but partially 
carried out, there are now fine plantations of Chinchonas, in- 
cluding the most valuable species, in the Hast Indies, Ceylon, and 


The Moon. AGL 


Jamaica, and so rapid is their extension that, in all human proba- 
bility, there will be a supply of Peruvian bark from these sources 
at the very time South American forests are approaching ex- 
haustion. Other countries with climates suitable might try the 
cultivation, which, in order to be of real benefit to mankind, ought 
to be as general as that of the spices, and conducted by private 
enterprise. ‘The first plantations in Java were made in the open 
clearings, but afterwards this system was given up, and avenues 
were cut through the virgin forest, im which the Chinchonas 
were set, thus going to the other extreme, and allowing them 
no sun whatever. The latter is the system still pursued in 
Java, whilst the former, with some modification, has been 
adopted on some of the most important plantations in India, 
and is expected to lead to more speedy and profitable results. 


THE MOON. 


BY THE REY. T. W. WEBB, F.R.A.S. 


Tur student who feels disposed to carry into effect the sugges- 
tions contained in a previous paper, will have to bear m mind 
that, notwithstanding the peculiar accessibility of our satellite 
in point of distance, its frequent visibility, and the powerful 
grasp upon it possessed even by moderate sized instruments, 
certain conditions are requisite for the accurate comprehension 
and delineation of its minute details; and not even keenness of 
sight, or accuracy of pencil, can adequately compensate for 
entire ignorance of perspective, or of the laws of light and 
shade. ‘The surface which we have to interpret and represent 
may probably be composed of materials not dissimilar to those 
of our globe, and their arrangement is not so wholly different 
as might be supposed in the judgment of an uninstructed eye ; 
but they are exhibited to us m a way so very unlike any views 
that we ever obtain of the surface on which we stand, that it 
requires some attention to discover their real configuration. 
We look upon a hemisphere which presents its details to us 
under every possible angle between 0° and 90°; and the partial 
or total concealment of one object behind another, and the 
effect technically called ‘“ foreshortening,’” by which length is 
contrasted when viewed end ways, and height diminished when 
regarded from above, and circles are transformed into ellipses,and 
right angles become obtuse or acute, ought to be understood and 
allowed for. A general idea also of what is termed “ relief,” is 
equally as important as one of perspective. ‘The laws of light and 


A62 The Moon. 


shade produce effects the reason of which is not always appa- 
rent, except to the careful observer, and which are perhaps not 
always fully attended to, even by artists, who ought to be 
especially scrupulous in this respect, but which show their 
fullest development in the moon. ‘There it is clearly seen how 
small a relation the actual amount of elevation bears to the 
extent of shadow which it occasions in the nearly horizontal 
illumination of the beginning or close of the lunar day, and 
how slight a resemblance there often is, under such circum- 
stances, between the outime of the substance and the shadow. 
Every little insulated hillock will betray itself in this position by 
so disproportioned a shade, that Schroter considered that ele- 
vations of not more than eighty feet might thus be clearly dis- 
tinguished near the “ terminator,” or general boundary of light 
and darkness, even at our distance of nearly a quarter of a 
million of miles. The shadow of a rounded summit will be 
projected out into a long spire, so sharpened at the point as to 
deceive the unwary spectator into the impression of its falling 
from a tapering pinnacle; inconsiderable ridges near the ter- 
minator will bring in great encroaching notches or bays of 
darkness ; the rings of craters will increase strongly in appa- 
rent breadth; the long gentle slopes which usually incline up- 
wards to the foot of the wall, like a broad “ glacis,’”” in military 
language, and pass unnoticed under a higher sun, being thrown 
up from the surrounding level to swell the general mass, while 
the interior cavity seems also to open wider as the lower slopes 
and terraces of its precipitous sides disappear one after another 
in the advancing shade. Nor are these more familiar appear- 
ances all that the observer will have to account for. He must 
seek in the same laws of illumination the explanation of less ordi- 
nary effects; he may find a tapering spire of shadow distorted 
‘ from its regular outline by the uneven ground which it tra- 
verses, or squared off suddenly before reaching its termination, 
because it is traversed at right angles by a comparatively incon- 
siderable ridge; he may perceive that the shade cast by a 
peaked but broad-shouldered summit loses its sharpness with 
the advance of the lunar forenoon, and at length disappears, 
from becoming entangled among its own inferior buttresses, 
while these alone project a black outline of an entirely altered 
character upon the plain at their feet. The same results of the 
unchanging laws of illumination, it need not be said, occur 
equally upon the earth; but here we are little sensible of them. 
Surrounded by them, and enveloped in them, we are not in a 
position to comprehend their full proportions, or to judge in- 
tuitively how the relief of our landscape would appear in a 
bird’s-eye view at the distance of a quarter of a million of 
miles. .And besides this important difference, we can never 


The Moon. 463 


see in terrestrial effects those sharp and vehement contrasts 
of light and shade which strike us so much in the moon. The 
presence of a highly reflective atmosphere, even when unvaried 
by clouds, which diffuse much light, modifies the depth of our 
shadows, in proportion as it illuminates and colours what would 
otherwise be the blackness of our sky. On the moon that 
vaporous envelope is, if not altogether wanting, far too rare to 
produce any such result. 

Here much general light is interwoven with our darkness, 
and the direct sunshine is not the only medium of illumination ; 
air-tints and reflections soften all our shadows by day, and 
twilight encroaches far upon the regions of night: there (save 
only when the keen eye of Dawes, sheltered by his own con- 
tracted eye-piece, detects in the black interior of some colossal 
crater a feeble reverberation from its illuminated wall) every- 
thing not in direct sunshine is involved in absolute midnight. 
Half-tones, the cause of so much beauty upon the earth, do not 
exist upon the moon, excepting where a narrow dusky fringe 
along the terminator, or the fainter beam that first breaks in 
upon the floor of a crater, or touches some mountain’s peak 
amidst the darkness of the night-side, shows that a portion of 
the solar dise alone is visible. But the student who has mas- 
tered these peculiar characteristics has still a task remaimmng— 
to allow for the difference of aspect introduced by what is called 
“‘libration.””? Were the moon to travel round us with a perfectly 
equable velocity, in an orbit coincident with the ecliptic, re- 
volving at the same time on an axis perpendicular to its orbit, 
we should always see exactly the same hemisphere, with an 
invariable arrangement of the spots relatively to the centre and 
the edges of the disc; and precisely the same effects of light 
and shade would recur at corresponding periods in every luna- 
tion. ‘But none of these conditions are fulfilled. The moon’s 
orbit is an ellipse, a form necessarily involving mequality of 
speed in its different parts; and since her rotation upon her 
axis is perfectly equable, this alternate acceleration and retar- 
dation in her orbit, urging her beyond, or keeping her behind, 
the place in the sky which she would have occupied with an 
equable motion, has the effect of making her spots appear to 
“ librate,” or swing to and fro, alternately in advance of and 
behind their mean position. This motion from E.to W., and 
from W. to H., is called the ‘ hbration in longitude.” The 
inclination of the moon’s orbit to the ecliptic, and of her axis 
to her orbit, combine to produce another kind of libration, “‘im 
latitude,” which shifts the spots in a similar way upwards and 
downwards; and as in the previous case we see alternately a 
little way round the mean H. or W. limb, so im this, we catch a 
little more of the regions beyond the arctic or antarctic pole. 


A464 Occultations. 


These changes, it is true, are of no great extent, never exceed- 
me 7 55’ from H. to W., or 6 47 from N. to S.,* and their 
influence is not important upon the central parts of the disc ; 
but they keep the limb in an unsettled state, and are continually 
altering the perspective of the parts adjacent to it, so that in 
this situation a region will have an entirely different aspect at 
the same age of the moon in different lunations. ‘The libration 
in latitude may also sometimes occasion a slight deviation in the 
direction of the shadows, which may not be unimportant in the 
case of objects lyme H. and W., and assuming an altered 
appearance as the shadow falls on the N. or 8. side. The 
larger features, indeed, are liable to no misapprehension, keep- 
ing, under all circumstances, their own determinate character ; 
but as to minuter details, it would hardly be supposed, except 
from actual experience, how great an amount of apparent change 
may sometimes depend upon very small deviations in the angles 
of incident and reflected light. The landscape artist, however, 
who has delineated the same subject repeatedly from slightly 
altered points of view, and in the varying light of successive 
hours, will require no further or closer illustration of these 
transformations. Such are the difficulties which beset the study 
of the moon, though not without some degree of compensation, 
since, if these discrepancies at one time perplex us, at another 
time they unravel perplexities ; and the play of light and shade 
which may occasionally bring a familiar object before us in “a 
questionable shape,” will now and then clear up, beyond a 
question, the nature of one previously doubtful. 

The subject will be resumed in a future number. A pres- 
sure on our space compels the postponement of our list of 
“Double Stars.” 


OCCULTATIONS. 


There will be only four occultations during this month at 
convenient hours. Jan. Ist., x Tauri, 54 mag. (one of the 
components of a wide double star) will disappear at 10h. 
om., and reappear at 11h. 8m.—Jan. 9th, 55 Leonis, 6 mag., 
occulted when the moon rises, will emerge at 10h. 12m.—Jan. 
26th, 27 Arietis, 6 mag., will be hidden from 1]h. 31m. till 
12h. 8i.—Jan. 27th, 6 Arietis, 43 mag., will disappear at 
5h. 10m., and reappear at 6h. 28m. 


* These quantities are somewhat variously given; the value here adopted is 
from Beer and Madler. 

There is a third kind of libration called the paraillactic, arising from the diffe- 
rent position of the point of view upon the surface of the earth, and varying with 
the moon’s altitude above the horizon, but it never exceeds 1° 1’ 80". 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. 465 


PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 


ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 


At the first meeting of the present session, on the 14th Nov., 
the Astronomer Royal called attention to the efforts which have 
been lately made to improve our knowledge of the measure of the 
earth and of the heavens, his discourse being illustrated by a map 
showing the triangulation of Europe as it stands at present, and 
rendering evident that from the Danube to the North Cape on the 
N., and to Valentia on the W., very little is left to be desired. 

Mindful of the past labours of the French and ourselves on the 
measures of arcs of meridian, the illustrious Struve, the originator 
of the recent operations, suggested that an are of parallel should be 
measured, extending from Valentia, using the present triangulation 
as far as it reaches, and extending it to the town of Orsk, on the 
Oural, thus comprising nearly seventy degrees of longitude, an arc 
of such a length, that, as remarked by the Astronomer Royal, it is 
scarcely probable that a longer will ever be measured by man. 

For the measure of the earth, then, it was first necessary to find 
by some lineal measure the length of this arc; in other words, to find 
the distance in yards (our standard of measurement) between Va- 
lentia and Orsk ; and secondly to find the difference in time between 
the two places. 

First, as to the length of the are. The British part of it 
required little attention, as thanks to the admirable work of our 
Ordnance surveyors, and subsequent investigations by means of 
chronometers, the actual distance from Valentia to Dover is known 
to within a few yards. 

Unfortunately the continuation of this line to Paris, which has 
ween effected with equal accuracy, dips too much to the south to 
be available for the present purpose. It became necessary, therefore, 
to effect a junction between Dover and Belgium to fill up the gap 
that there exists between the English and continental systems of 
triangulation. This has been admirably done by Sir H. James 
during the present year, and the whole distance from Valentia to 
some point pretty well advanced, is by this time computed, while 
the triangulation itself is fast progressing towards Orsk. 

Secondly, as to the difference of local time at the extremities of 
this are. This must be determined from those observed at inter- 
mediate places on the arc; as, for instance, between Valentia and 
Greenwich, and Greenwich and Brussels, and in this determination 
telegraphs and railways will be freely used. A complete circuit 
between the first-named points were placed at Mr. Airy’s disposal 
by Sir Charles Bright, after the Atlantic cable (which “ took sea” 
at Valentia) proved a failure. The difference of time obtained by 
the electric current (which took 1-10th of a second to traverse the 
800 miles of wire) agreed exactly with that formerly derived from 
the transit of chronometers between the two places. 


466 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


The recent experiments of Foucault with the turning mirror, and 
the parallax observations of the planet Mars which have been made 
during the past three months in both N. and S. hemispheres, were 
alluded to, as bearing upon the distance of the sun, which is the 
basis of all measures of the heavens. 
~~ Lhe smaller velocity of light deduced by Foucault, linked to the 
sun’s distance by its aberration, was shown to be supported by some 
of M. le Verrier’s recent investigations, while the extreme doubtful- 
ness of some of the most important observations of the transit of 
Venus on 1769, on which the received distance of the sun depends, 
renders the success of the observations of Mars doubly desirable. 
And although the distance of Mars, and not of the sun, will, in the 
first mstance, be obtained by this method, they are bound together 
by a proportion which has been accurately known since the days of 
Copernicus and Tycho. 

Professor Selwyn communicated a note relative to an apparent 
notch in the sun’s limb, observed by him some little time ago. 
From the note we learn that he now ascribes the appearance to the 
low power employed, as the complete limb was observed on the 
same day by the Rev. W. R. Dawes, in his larger instrument. 

Several other papers, among them a valuable one on eye-pieces, 
by the distinguished observer we have just named, and on the 
diameters of Mars, by the Rey. R. Main, were communicated to the 
Society. 

The latter paper was accompanied by some drawings of Mars, 
from observations made in the Oxford heliometer. Another series 
of thirteen drawings, chosen from twenty-five made during the 
past opposition of the planet, and embracing a complete rotation, 
was exhibited by Mr. Lockyer. 

This latter series, the result of observations made by an equa- 
toreally mounted refractor of 64 inches aperture, the workmanship 
of Messrs. Cooke and Sons, of York, was remarkable not only on 
account of the details of the planet shown, but also of the exact 
agreement of the broad features of the drawings with a similar 
series taken by Beer and Madler, in 1830. 


CHEMICAL SOCIETY, December Ath. 


Recent Formation or Rocxs.—A paper was read by Mr. A. H. 
Church on “ Certain Processes of Rock Formation now in Action.” 
The author’s attention was directed in the summer of 1860 to an 
instance, at Bude-Haven, in Cornwall, of the consolidation of sea- 
sand by means of land-springs, and he endeavoured to trace the 
chemical causes of the phenomenon. From numerous analyses of 
the loose and of the consolidated sand, and also of the water of the 
district, the author came to the conclusion that the cementing 
action was often due to the reprecipitation, between the sandy 
particles of carbonate of lime—this substance being originally de- 
rived from the shelly débris of the sand itself, and being held in 
temporary solution by carbonated water. The absence of marine 
salts from the consolidated sand supports this hypothesis. Mr. 


Proceedings of Learned Societies. — 467 


Church then proceeded to describe the formation of travertine in 
several localities in England, noting more especially the rapidity of the 
process, the organic substances, occurring sometimes most abundantly, 
in the deposits, and the physical characteristics of the formation. As 
to this last point, the author pointed out the remarkable similarity 
in construction between the discoidal concretions of carbonate of 
lime in travertine and Rainey’s globular lime-crystals, pearls, and 
the minerals pisolite and oolite. 

The latter portion of the paper was partly devoted to a brief 
notice of the consolidation of various materials into rocky or mineral 
substances by means of silica, oxide of iron, etc., and partly to the 
peculiar processes by which certain mineral and metallic veins are 
gradually formed by the elimination of the constituents from the 
surrounding masses of mixed matters. Mr. Church noticed the 
construction of the geodes of iron-ore, containing nuclei of ochre or 
clay, found in the ochre pit on Shotover Hill, near Oxford; the 
formation still going on* of magnesiam limestone at the upper part of 
Bullmgdon Marsh, in the same neighbourhood; the occurrence in 
clay of calcareous concretions, and in chalk of silicious nodules ; 
and the production, at the present time, in the chalk, of such 
minerals as allophane and collyrite, in which forms much of the 
silica and aluminay of the chalk becomes, as it were, concentrated. 

In the interesting discussion which followed, Mr. Church sup- 
ported his views of the modern formation of silicious minerals by 
the case of the silicified basket of eggs found in an abandoned chalk- 
pit, near Winchester, many years ago. 


CHEMICAL SOCIETY.—December 18. 


ARTIFICIALLY Formep AtcoHots.—A communication was read 
from Professor Wurtz, in which he pointed out, among other novel 
facts, certain hitherto unobserved differences between ordinary 
alcohols as obtained by fermentation, and those artificially produced 
by synthesis from the corresponding olefiant. The former may be 
viewed as water in which one equivalent of hydrogen has been re- 
placed by ethyle, or its homologues, the latter as water plus ethylene 
or other olefiants. ‘his is shown by the formule 

Cro = O, Normal amylic alcohol. 
Gb Ee OZ Amylic alcohol formed by synthesis 


from amylene. 


Cuinotine Buuzt.—Dr. Hofmann gave a most interesting oral 
account to the Society of his experiments on the constitution of 
this beautiful but fugitive dye, discovered some years ago by 
_ Greville Williams. <A prize of 20,000 franes has been recently 
offered in France to any one who will devise a way of rendering 
this dye permanent, and the material is now manufactured on a 

* This ruodern deposit has been worked for magnesia commercially. 

+ Mr. Church displayed numerous illustrative specimens of the products 
referred to, including crystals of sulphate of lime, and of sulphate of baryta, found 
in septaria, in the London clay. 


6 


468 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


large scale in Paris. It occurs in magnificent square prismatic 
crystals of brilliant metallic lustre, and which, if made from pure 
chinoline (C,,; H, N) by the successive action of iodide of amyle 
(Cy Hy, J) and potash (KO, HO), have the constitution expressed 
by the formula— 
Css Hos No I. 

This substance contains the elements of two equivalents of chinoline— 
one of iodide of amyle, and one of amylene. It yields a magnificent 
series of salts. Analogous substances may also be obtained by 
taking lepidine (C,, H, N) instead of chinoline, and iodide of ethyle 
instead of the amyle compound. 


LINNEAN SOCIETY.—December 18th. 


The first paper read was by Mr. A. H. Church, “ On the Form of 
the Vascular Fasciculi in certain British Ferns.” The author 
pointed out the general characteristics of the vascular bundles in 
the majority of the British species of Lastrea, noting two remark- 
able exceptions in JL. oreopteris, the mountain fern, and L. thelypteris, 
the marsh fern. In these latter plants there are only two vascular 
fasciculi in the stipes of the frond, and these ultimately unite. The 
scalariform ducts are arranged in these two species in the form of 
the Greek letter 5, while in other Lastreas the prevalent form is 
that of an oval with a small incurved process. Mr. Church pointed 
out the vascular arrangement in several other British species as 
compared with certain foreign forms and British varieties, having 
derived his conclusions from several hundred examinations of the 
living plants. In these researches he made use of perchloride of 
iron, which revealed the secondary deposits and ducts containing 
tannin, by striking a blue-black colour with them. 


ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—December 8th. 


Overz~anD Routt rrom Prexin.—Dr. Norton Shaw read a paper 
descriptive of Mr. Grant’s important and adventurous overland 
journey from Pekin to European Russia. Mr. Grant, having 
obtained a passport for Mongolia from Prince Kung, started from 
Pekin on March 26th, 1862. On the Ist of April he arrived at 
Kalgan, the most important commercial town in the north of China. 
On the 9th of May he reached Ouga, the capital of Mongolia, 
haying traversed the desert of Gobi entirely unattended. Remain- 
ing twenty days at Kiachta, he started for Irkutsk, the capital of 
Hastern Siberia. After stopping here for a short time, he set 
out for Tomsk, whence he took a steamer to Tumen, calling at 
Tobolsk, the ancient capital of Siberia, from whence he passed 
through Ekaterinburgh to the Ural Mountains, and arrived at Tagill, 
where there are valuable mines belonging to the Demidoff family. 
These mines last year gave employment to upwards of 60,000 
persons, 

Mr. Grant stated that by this route communication might be 


Notes and Memoranda. 469 


made between London and Pekin in twenty-one days, the present 
route requiring upwards of fifty. He also praised most warmly the 
universal kindness and hospitality of the Russians. 

Mr. Lay, the Chinese Commissioner, stated that an expedition 
was being organised in England to assist the Chinese government : 
Prince Kung having expressed a wish to avail himself of the assis- 
tance of Englishmen in suppressing the Taeping rebellion. This 
expedition is to be placed under the command of Captain Sherard 
Osborn. In connection with this movement it was proposed to 
organize a system of emigration, by which the surplus population of 
China could be located in some of the islands of the Indian Archi- 
pelago. 


NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 


MaaGwetic PERTURBATIONS AND AURORAS.—The epochs of the appearance 
of the Aurora borealis, and those of magnetic perturbations, coincide pretty 
closely. Rarely are auroras exhibited without magnetic disturbances occurring at 
the same time, and the agitation of the magnetic needle indicates the approach of 
an aurora. ‘The causes of the two phenomena appear to operate simultaneously, 
and they are often accompanied by earthquakes in countries exposed to that class 
of action. Magnetic perturbations, however, operate over a much wider range 
than auroras.— Quetelet, Physique du Globe. 


VEGETATION AND TEMPERATURE.—M. Quetelet says that careful observations 
have convinced him that a plant develops much more rapidly during a mean 
temperature, whea this temperature varies, than when it is uniform, provided that 
it does not fall below freezing. He is also of opinion that the effect produced is 
equal to the squares of the temperatures. ‘hus, if the effect of an uniform 
temperature of 10° Cent. be considered as 100, that of an average or mean 
temperature equal to 10°, but varying between 6° and 14,° will be equal to 116. 
6X 6 +14 X 14 __ ji¢ 
SEG 


GrowtH OF Corton IN FRancE.—Cosmos states that M. Arnaud, of Remoulins, 
has demonstrated that cotton can be grown in the south of France. The expense, 
beginning with the preparation of the soil, and ending with cleaning and warehousing 
the cotton, is 800 frs. per hectare, which is equal to 24,711 acres. In Algeria the 
return is 500 or 600 kilogrammes, each of which is rather more than 2 lb. ; and sup- 
posing 300 lb. could be obtained in France, it would yield, at 6 frs. per kilogramme, 
1800 frs., half of which would suffice for a good profit. The great objection is, in 
the south of France the plant does not become quite ripe, and the capsules, after 
being gathered in a closed state, require to be kept in a warm, dry place, until 
they open of their own accord. 


2] 


76TH AstERoID.—M. d’Arrest has discovered this body, which resembles a 


12 magnitude star. He proposes to call it Freya. It is the first object of its 
kind that has been discovered at Copenhagen. 


Tue SupposeD SATELLITE OF VENUS.—We learn from Cosmos that M. 
Haase, of Hanover, called the attention of astronomers, by circular, to the advi- 
sability of watching the solar disk towards the end of November and the beginning 
of December, as he believes the body conjectured to be a satellite of Venus may 
be a small planet revolving in an orbit, not differing much from that of the great 
one. When sufficient time has expired to collect the various observations, some 
new light may be thrown on this curious subject. 


AGE OF THE PyRamrips.—M. Radau states that Mahmoud Bey, Astronomer 
to the Viceroy of Egypt, has investigated the structure of the Pyramids, with a 


470 Notes and Memoranda. 


view to discover the object of their erection. He finds the average slope of the 
Great Pyramid, and of six others at Memphis, to be 52°, and the variation from 
this mean to be slight. Moreover, the pyramids and funeral monuments which 
surround them, are placed so as to correspond exactly with the four cardinal points. 
Now it is observed when Sirius passes the meridian of Gizeh its rays strike upon the 
south side of the Pyramid, and 3300 years B.c. they must have fallen perpen- 
dicularly upon it, and thus, according to astrological speculation, must have exerted 
their greatest influence. He therefore conjectures that the pyramids were built 
so as to recéive the most complete illumination from the brightest star in our 
heavens, which was consecrated to Sothis, the celestial dog and judge of the 
dead. The date of 3300 years B.C. corresponds with Bunsen’s calculation, 
according to which the pyramids were built in the reign of Cheops, in the 34th 
century before our era, and it also coincides with the Arab tradition that they were 
constructed three or four centuries before the Deluge, in the year 3716, before the 
Hegira. 

OzoNE PRODUCED BY Prants.—Mr. C. Kosman has communicated to the 
French Academy a series of observations, from which he draws the following 
conclusions :—1. Plants evolve ozonized oxygen from their leaves and green parts. 
2. They disengage during the day ozonized oxygen in a greater ponderable 
quantity than exists in the cireumambient air. 3. During the night the difference 
between the ozone produced in the plants, and that contained in the air, becomes 
ail in the case of isolated vegetation, but where the plants grow thickly and 
vigorously, this ozone is more abundant than that of the air. 4. Plants in the 
country evolve more ozone during the day than town plants. 5. From this cause 
country air is more exhilarating than town air. 6. In the midst of towns, and 
of a dense population, the night air exhibits more ozone than that of the day, but 
in proportion as the animal population diminishes, and the vegetable kingdom 
predominates, the diurnal ozone increases untilit exceeds that of the night. 7. The 
interior of the corollas of plants do not evolve ozone. 8. Inhabited rooms do not 
usually contain ozonized oxygen. 


OxyGEnizep Water.—M. Chevreul finds that this preparation destroys 
colours of an organic origin, just as chlorine does, but more slowly. 


Size oF Microscopic PRINTING AND Writine.—Mr. Webb addresses us a 
note, in which he says he has measured the first 7 in “shilling,” as it appears in 
one of the microscopic cards supplied to our readers, and he finds it “to 
be approximately the s§5 * tooo = sovlsoo Of an inch.” The specimen which he 
engraved for us was by no means intended to represent the limit of perfection to 
which he has brought this curious art, but such as could be easily read with a 
moderate power by persons of ordinary sight. He sends us the ‘ Lord’s 
Prayer,” beautifully printed from copper, in which he states the letters are 
aso & uss = zr0000 Of an inch, and he observes in his note, “ startling as the 
above numbers appear at first sight, yet the letters are very large when compared 
with those which have been cut upen glass, some of which are cnly the forty 
millionth of an inch.” He adds, “In your September number you mentioned 
my chapter of St. John. That specimen has been measured by several gentlemen, 
who all agree in stating it to be the 3; X gy, orqdsz of an inch. The 4137 
letters in that specimen, multiplied by 1054, give 4,360,398 letters to the square 
inch, while the whole of the Bible and ‘Testament are said to contain only 
3,566,400 letters, thus showing that at the rate in which the chapter of St. John 
is written, the whole ‘Bible and Testament, and more than three-quarters of a 
million ad ditional letters, would come into the square inch” Mr. Webb also calls 
atiention to the extreme minuteness of the particles of blacklead with which the 
lines of the finest writing on glass are filled by the gentleman who mounts his 
specimens. Their size, he says, would require at least ten figures to express it, 
and such figures are probably only a tenth of the number required to state the 
dimensions of Dr. Faraday’s ruby gold. 


Botrprs.—On the 26th November, about 5 P.m., a large meteor was seen 
described “as big as two fists,” and lighting up a lane near Chiselhurst. On 
the same date, but at 6 P.M., a gentleman near Broxbourne saw a large meteor 


Notes and Memoranda. A71 


apparently 400 or 500 yards above the ground, first blue, then red, and emitted 
numerous sparks. The same body appears to have been seen at Peckham, Bath, 
etc. Cosmos states that a few minutes before six this bolide passed over Havre 
with astonishing rapidity from N. to §., leaving a luminous track behind it. It 
was also seen at Bolbec, Ivetot, and Rouen; observers at the latter place fancying 
it fell by the Church of St. Vivien. At Strasburg it was seen about five minutes 
to five. 


PsEUDOPODIA OF THE RuIzZOPODA.—The Annals of Natural History, No. 
60, contains a translation of Professor Reichert’s observations on the pseudopodia 
of Miliola and Rotalia, which he obtained alive at Trieste. He states that the 
pseudopodia, when fully extended, measure six or eight times the diameter af the 
body, and terminate in filaments so fine that “a perceptible thickening scarcely 
appears when two or three filaments come together, and apparently pass into one, 
or when the magnifying power of the instrument is raised from 450 to 700 
diameters.” He denies the fact of the so-called movement of granules in these 
organs, aad explains it by a “‘ contraction wave formed by a loop advancing along 
the filament, produced in consequence of contractile movements of the substance 
invisible to us.” He denies that the pseudopodia coalesce or amalgamate on 
touching each other, although they readily adhere, and ascribes the appearance 
of a “sarcode net” to apparent anastamoses arising from adhesion. 


THE ANIMAL AND Froat or JantHina.—Mr. A. Adams, writing in Annals 
of Natural History, describes the beautiful Zanthina, or ocean snail, as quite 
blind, and having the large horny mandibles, and the rounded extremity of the 
tongue, furnished with sharp, curved, slender teeth. It chiefly feeds on Physalia 
Porpite and Velella. The Ianthina is remarkable for floating shell downwards 
in the water, and Mr. Adams tells us that the anterior part of the foot forms a 
* shallow cup which embraces the smooth anterior rounded end of the float. 
When the animal wishes to bring its head to the surface of the water, this part of 
the foot is made to glide over the back of the float. Thus the animal can raise 
and lower itself at pleasure by means of its own float.” The floats are formed 
of a mucous film containing air, and when cut with scissors the animal descended 
to the bottom of the vessel in which it was confined, and did not make a new one. 


THe SupposED MinuTE VERTEBRATE.—Mr. Spence Bate points out the 
probability of the supposed minute jaw found by Dr. Wallich in St. Helena 
mud being the last joint of the leg of a small crustacean, and Dr. Wallich sends a 
fresh letter to the Annals of Natural History, giving reasons for thinking it—as 
Mr. Busk conjectures—a valve of a pedicellaria from an echinus. 


Mr. Hincxs on THE Mepus& or Hyprom Poryrs.—The Rev. Thomas 
Hincks gives two drawings, with descriptions, in the Annals of Natural History, 
showing that the medusa, or “ gonozoid,” as he prefers to call it, ‘‘of the Stauridia 
producta, is identical with that of the Coryne eximia, a member of a distinct 
genus.” The reader who is not acquainted with the curious modes of reproduction 
and development belonging to these creatures, is referred to our article on the 
“‘ Origin and Transformation of Animals” (September No., p. 95). 


Dz CaNnDoLLE oN SPEcrES.—In an article on the Cupulifere in the Biblio- 
théque Universel, M. Alphonse de Candolle observes, ‘“ hereditariness is an attri- 
bute of races as well as of species, to cite an evident example, the Jewish people 
have a certain hereditary configuration, which they preserve under all climates 
and influences of nutrition, without any one pretending that they constitute a 
species. Non-hereditariness may overthrow a pretended species, but hereditari- 
ness, even when it appears to be indefinite, does not prove the existence of a 
species.” 


SECCHI ON THE 2ND Comet or 1862.—In a letter to M. Eliede Beaumont, M. 
Secchi gives an interesting account of this comet, which may be taken in con- 
junction with that already furnished to our readers by Mr. Webb and Mrs. Ward. 
He says the opposite directions taken by the sheaf-like streams of luminous matter, 
indicated two fixed centres of eruption. “The tail was simple until the two reversed 
jets were well developed, so that no doubt could remain that it was really these 


472, Notes and Memoranda. 


nebulosities which, in reversing themselves, produced the tail.” The periodicity 
of the jets at first suggested a rotation of the comet about an axis, but the idea 
was not confirmed by observation. The light of the nucleus and of the aigrettes 
was only polarized once, on the last day on which such an observation was possible, 
and then very feebly. The nebulosities, on the contrary, were always strongly 
polarized. These facts indicate adifferent molecular condition, and M. Secchi suggests 
that the nucleus and the aigrettes may have been formed of vapour analogous to 
our clouds, which do not polarize, while the nebulosities had passed into a state of 
gas which polarizes like our atmosphere. He adds, ‘‘ We might also admit that 
the nucleus and the aigrettes were incandescent, but the supposition is a little 
difficult. After the perihelion passage there appeared vestiges of paraboloid sur- 
faces enveloping the sheaves of light, as if the matter was being deposited in layers 
as the comet cooled.” 


Seccurt on Mars.—In 1858, M. Secchi found the appearance of Mars differ 
considerably from the drawings of Maedler and other astronomers. Now, the 
planet has returned to its former aspect, and, instead of exhibiting large compli- 
cated solar spots, showed them to be reduced to a small circle, as in Maedler. 
The great spots had given place to rose-coloured surfaces, traversed by blue canals, 
as represented in Secchi’s picture of 1858. From these changes he thinks no 
doubt can remain that the polar spots consist of snow, or condensed clouds, which 
the summer heat of the planet melts. The red surface he regards as land, and 
the blue canals as water.—Comptes Rendus. 


Votcanic Hatr.—M. Rambosson communicates tothe French Academy some 
facts relating to the volcano in the Isle of Reunion, and states that in the eruption 
of 1860 as in that of 1812, it poured forth a shower of dark cinders and of long 
flexible filaments of glass-like golden hair. Similar filaments were seen by Sir W. 
Hamilton emitted by Vesuvius in 1779. 


Awnatysis or Arr.—In his pamphlet on “Air and Water,” Mr. Condy 
points out the facility with which air may be tested for organic impurities by placing 
in the required spot four or more small white saucers, each containing an ounce of 
distilled water, and severally one, two, three, four, or more drops of his Patent 
Ozonized Water, or Disinfecting Fluid, reduced by addition of two parts of water. 
The rate at which the pink colour of the permanganate disappears, indicates the 
proportion of impurity present. If during a night or day the colour vanishes in 
the saucer containing four drops, he states that the impurity verges on positive 
pollution. 


New Uss or Diamonps.—It was proposed some time ago in Cosmos to employ 
rough dark diamonds in the perforation of rocks, and that journal now states 
that M. Leschot has used a perforator formed of a tube terminating in a crown of 
these diamonds, and succeeded in making a hole in granite in one hour which 
would have taken two miners two days. ‘The diamonds were not injured in the 
process. 


EXPERIMENT WITH SULPHURETTED HypRoGEN.—Cosmos says, “ Bring some 
drops of bromine in contact with sulphuretted hydrogen, and you will see the 
volume of the gas doubled at the moment the sulphur is deposited.” 


A Fowt wits Brack PERiostruM.— Dr. Miche, dining with some friends on 
a Cochin China fowl, noticed that the covering of its bones was quite black. He 
accordingly sent the skeleton to M. Flourens, who was able to exhibit to the Academy 
a similar skeleton of a common fowl. The bones themselves were white. Six 
chickens out of twelve having the same parents exhibited this peculiarity, and the 
flesh of the only one killed was dark and ill-flavoured. 


Bi or 


INDEX, 


—_—_—> 


ACALEPHS on the sea surface, 74, 362. 

Acari of solutions, 390. 

Acetylene, preparation of, 63. 

Adrianople, or Turkey red, 112. 

Age of the pyramids, 469. 

Air, analysis of, 472; Quetelet on the 
electricity of, 408. 

Albertite, new mineral, 145. 

Alcohol from coal gas, 229 ; production 
of, and other organic substances by 
synthesis, 64. © 

Alcohols, artificially formed, 467. 

Al Raiin Ophiucus, 55. 

Alternation of generations, 101. 

Alum, 109. 

Aluminium and its alloys, new appli- 
cations of, 391. 

Amylaceous fluid in wallflowers, 93. 

Analysis of air, 4/72. 

Ancient Egyptian jewellery, 64. 

Ancient Indian tombs, 333. 

Androgynous molluses, 100. 

Aniline, or Kyanol, 114. 

Animal and float of Ianthina, 471. 

Animals, language of, 211; their origin 
and transformation, 95. 

Annular nebula, Lassell on an, 353. 

Annulated animals, 104, 

Aphides, plant lice, 100. 

Aphrodite hispida, hairy sea-mouse, 81. 

Aplanatie eyepiece, 62, 311. 

Arachnoidiscus Ehrenbergiasatest, 429. 

Architecture, submarine,.339. 

Archzopteryx, 443. 

Arrow-root used for the adulteration of 
honey, 95. 

Art, taste in, 116. 

Art criticisms, 117. 

Artesian wells in the desert of Algiers, 
228. 

Artificial heat, economic production of, 
398. 

Asbestos paper, 390. 

Asilus, 396. 

Asteroid, the new, 147; 75th, 390; 
76th, 469. 

Astrapia nigra, magnificent plumage 
of, 73. 

Astronomical Society, 62. 

AsSTRONOMY.—Star-finding, 36; double 
stars, 54; transit of the shadow of 


Titan, 52; the moon, 57; occulta- 
tions, 60; opposition of Mars, 131; 
double stars, 133; occultations, 139 ; 
the comet, 139; comet II., by the 
Rev. C. Webb, 198 ; observations on 
comet II. by the Hon. Mrs. Ward, 
205; appearance of comet II. at 
Paris, 220 ; double stars, occultations, 
299; variable nebule, 310; double 
stars, occultations, the earth in op- 
position, 370; comets, 8380; Gau- 
tier on nebulae, 418; magnificent 
meteor seen on the 27th November, 
1862, 422; the moon, 461; occulta- 
tions, 464. 

Atmosphere, its division into layers, 408. 

Atmospheric electricity, distribution of, 
410. 

Aurora ‘borealis, De la Rive on, 38; 
Walker on, 258. 

Auroras and magnetic perturbations, 
469. 

Australia, explorations in, 386. 

Aye-aye, habits of the, 379. 


BaLENA marginata, Australis, Antarc- 
tica, 161. 

Balloon ascents, 306 ; Mr.Glaisher’s, 231. 

Balloons, re-introduction of Montgolfier, 
232. 

Beavers, furs of, in the Exhibition, 162. 

Bees, plants most attractive to, 93. 

Belgium, thunderstorms of, 410. 

Benzole, 114. 

Bibeo marci, leg of, 397. 

Binocular microscope, 349. 

Birds, music of, 20; language of, 21. 

Black lead disintegrated, 65. 

Blackbirds singing at night, 19. 

Blackcaps in suburban districts, 19. 

Blastoderm of eggs, 97. 

Bleeding by leeches, 353. 

Boat of death of the ancient Eeyp- 
tians, 65. 

Bolide, blue, 390. 

Bolides, 470. 

Bostrichus chalcographus, 31; Topo- 
graphus, 31. 

Brain, Flouren on wounds of the, 147. 

British Association for the Adyance- 
ment of Science, 305, 384. 


KK 


ATA TIndew. 


British ferns, on the form of the vas- 
cular fasciculiin, 468. 

Brown sugar used for adulterating 
honey, 99. 

Buecmum undatum, 342. 

Building stones, application of Dialysis 
to the preservation of 224, 

Buildings, models of, 227. 


CADMIUM, amalgam of, 310. 

Callionymus lyra, 79. 

Calomicrus circumfusus, captured by 
the Entomological Society, 61. 

Calorific power of hydrogen, 63. 

Camel in Australia, 1638. 

Cane sugar, where it occurs, 91. 

Canum venaticorum, 56. 

Carbon, calorific power of, 63. - 

Cardium echinatum, 342. 

Carnivorous caterpillars, 126. 

Carpenter on the microscope, 348. 

Cascarilleros, or bark collectors, 454: 

Cassiopea, 57. 

Casting, immense, 310. 

Caterpillars, poisonous, 124. 

Catodon polycyphus, 161. 

Cellularia parasitic, 79. 

Central Scotland, Geikie on the last 
elevation of, 228. 

Cephaloptera, devil fish, 167. 

Ceratopogon, claws of, 396. 

Cervidee, horns of, 162. 

Cestode of sun-fish, 83. 

Cestode, organization of the, 86. 

Cetacea, dugong oil from, 161. 

Charcoal as fuel, 401. 

Chemical Society, 387, 466, 467. 

Cuemistry.—Artificial production of 
organic compounds, 61; chemical 
manufactures as illustrated in the 
Exhibition of 1862, 108; recent 
formation of rocks, 466; avrtificially- 
formed aleohola, 467. 

Chinconas, 452 ; forests of, 453. 

Chincona bark, organic constituents of, 
456; trees, their introduction imto 
the East and West Indies, 460. 

Chincona Condaminea, var. Chahuar- 
puera, 455; pubescens, 406. 

Chinchonine, 456. 

Chiton cinereus, 81. 

Chromatic aberration of eye-pieces, 62. 

Circumpolar planets, 390. 

Cnethocampa processionea, or proces- 
sion caterpillar, 125. 

Coal-tar, production of colouring matter 
from, 114. 

Coal as fuel, 4.00. 

Cochineal, 111. 

Coke as fuel, 401. 

Colour as a test of the races of men, 385. 


Comets, an account of all whose orbits 
have not been calculated, 380; of 
1861, 68; I., 1862, 147; IL., 1862, 
198 ; observations on, 205 ; II., 1862, 
at Paris, note from M. Chacornac, 
220; I1., 1862, Secchi on the, 4:71. 

Conduction of heat, 404. 

Consanguinity, marriages of, 147; con- 
troversy, 228. 

Copper paint, 389. 

Corystes cassivellaunus, 80. 

Cossus ligniperda, 33; egg of, 99. 

Cossonus linearis, 29. 

Cotton, growth of, in France, 469. 

Cranium of giraffe, 15. 

Crocodile, change of form in the head 
of, 385. 

Cuckoo in suburban districts, 19. 

Cuttle-fish, shell of, 68. 

Cydippe, appendages of, 74. 

Cysticercus fasciolaris in the livers of 
mice, 89. 


DAcTYLOPTERUS (flying-fish), 445. 

De Candolle on species, 471. 

De la Rive on the Aurora borealis, 38. 

Delphinide, 161. 

Dentalium entalis, elephant’s tooth, 81. 

Desert of Algiers, artesian wells, 228. 

Devil-fish of Jamaica, 167. 

Dialysis, application of, to the preser- 
vation of building stones, 224, 

Diamonds, new use of, 472. 

Diatoms, markings on, 68. 

Diatomacez, on aclepositcontaining, 386. 

Dinner of the Entomological Society, 61. 

Diptera, claws of 396. 

Dolichopus fly, 397. 

Double stars, 52, 131, 299. See “ Stars 
Double.” 

Draco volans, lizard, 445. 

Dredging excursion, 73. 

Dromius irr oratus, reared in this coun- 
try, 61. 

Drysodile, new mineral, 164. 

Dugong oil in the Exhibition, 161. 

Dyer’s art, perfection of the, 115. ! 


Harru, on the rigidity of the, 148 ; 
measure of the, 465. 

Earth in opposition, 376, 

Echeneis, superstitions respecting the, 
412. 

Echinus Flemingii, 78. 

Echinus spine, a good test for flat 
field, 4:29. 

Economie production of artificial heat, 
398. 

Egg, what is an? 96; transformations 
of the, 97. 

Egypt, the winter quarters of our sum- 
mer birds, 26. 


Inde. 


Electric light, long spectrum of, 309. 

Electricity of air, Quetelet on, 408. 

Electricity, force of, 409; negative, 
410. 

Elephant’s tooth, Dentalium entalis, 81. 

Elm and its insect enemies, 191. 

Elm, insects injurious to the, 28. 

Emeus raised in this country, 61. 

Engravings, method of cleaning, 146. 

Entomological Society, 61, 225, 386. 

ENTOMOLOGY: new coleoptera from 
Cochin China, 225; insect flying 
under water, 225; new spider from 
Cochin China, 311; destriction of 
injurious insects by hard-billed birds, 
386 ; feet of insects, 393. 

Entomostraca, ova of, 67. 

Kolis, white, 81. 

Epimachus magnus, shoulder plumes 
of, 73. 

Equatorial stands, Horne and Thorn- 
thwaite’s, 232. 

Hsop prawns, 80. 

Ethalium septicum, 352. 

Experiences of Haschish, 435. 

Experiment with sulphuretted hydro- 
gen, 472. 

Eye, the, and the microscope, 427. 

Eyepiece, new, for telescopes, 62 ; com- 
parison of aplanatic with Huyghe- 
nian, 62. 


FEET OF INSECTS, 393. 

Ferns, form of Vascular fasciculi, 468. 

Fibrous sub-integumentary aponeurosis 
of young giraffe, 14. 

Filograna implexa, 342. 

Fishes, sudden destruction of, 60. 

Flame used in spectrum analysis, 44. 

Float of Ianthina, 4:71. 

Flustra (Polyzoa), 79. 

Fly, foot of the, 395. 

Foot of the fly, 395. 

Foraminifera of the Alps, 392. 

Formic acid in honey, 94. 

Fossil from Solenhofen, 388. 

Fossil, feathered, from the lithographic 
limestone, 313. 

Fossil groups, method of determining 
their age, 275. 

Fossil human skeleton from Guada- 
loupe, 280. 

Fowl with black periosteum, 472. 

France, growth of cotton in, 469. 

Freya, the genus, 311. 

Frog in block of coal, 145, 226. 

Frontal aponeurotic thickening of 
giraffe, 14. 

Fruit jars, closing them, 310. 

Fruit the favourite food of Birds of 
Paradise, 70. 


FuEL: wood, 398; peat, 400; coal, 
400; charcoal, 401; coke, 401 ; pro- 
duction of heat from, 401. 

Fulminant, powerful, 229. 

Fungus foot of India, 248. 

Furnaces, gas glass, 63. 

Furs, 162. 

Fusisporium incarcerans, spores of, 11, 


GALATHEA SQUAMIFERA, 82. 

Galeopithecus, flight of, 445. 

Gammarus sabini, 82. 

Garancine or Garanceux, 114. 

Gas glass furnaces, 63. 

Gautier on nebulz, 418, 

Geikie on the last elevation of central 
Scotland, 228. 

Gemmeous dragonet, 79. 

Geneagenesis, Quatrefages on, 103. 

Generations, alternation of, 101. 

Geological Society of London, 386. 

GEOLOGY: raised beaches of Scotland, 
GO; the sudden destruction of fishes 
in the sea, 60; feathered fossil from 
the lithographic limestone of Solen- 
hofen, 318; the flying lizards of the 
secondary rocks, 443. 

Gills and tail of tadpole, disappearance 
of, 99. 

Giraffe, has it more than two horns ? 
12; skeleton of young male, 16. 

Golden oriole in the New Forest, 19. 

Gonoplax angulatas, angular crab, 80. 

Grain, removing the husk from, 389. 

Granite, on its association with the 
tertiary strata, 386. 

Grape sugar, where found, 91. 

Great comet of 1861, 311. 

Green, innocent, 229. 

Grey wagtail in Hertfordshire, 19. 

Growth of cotton in France, 469. 

Gunpowder in vacuo, 228. 

Gunpowder, new, 310. 

Gymnetrus, ribband fishes of 
genus, 1. 


the 


Harr, voleanic, 472. 

Halicone dugong, one of the herbivo- 
rous whales, 161. 

Halos, artificial, 45; formation of, 148. 

Haschisch, effects of, 346; experi- 
ences of, 435. 

Heat, econemic production of artifi- 
cial, 398; its production from fuel, 
401; conduction and radiation of, 404. 

Herbivorous whales, 161. 

Hercules, constellation of, double stars 
in, 55. 

Herefordshire, rare birds in, 19. 

Heterocercal fishes, 44.4. 

Hilaria cilipes, leg of, 397. 


476 Index. 


Hincks on the meduse of hydroid 
polyps, 471. 

Hirudo medicinalis, 355. 

Homocercal fishes, 444. 

Honey crystals, 94. 

Honey, its origin and adulteration, 90. 

Honey bee, dissection of, 90. 

Hooping cough, cure for, 228. 

Horn, third, of giraffe, 16. 

Horns. 162; is the giraffe provided 
with more than two? 12. 

House fly, 396. 

Human body, development of the, 227. 

Human skeleton, fossil, 280. 

Human voice, mechanism of, 148 ; 
imitation of, 390. 

Huyghenian eye-piece, 62. 

Hyas coarctatus, 76. 

Hybrid plants, 230. 

Hydraulic illusions, 140. 

Hydro-carbon, calorific power of, 63. 

Hydroid polyps, meduse of, 471. 

Hydrogen, calorific power of, 63. 

Hylisinus Fraxini, 33. 


TANTHINA, animal and float of, 471. 

Illumination, artificial, for micro-pho- 
tography, 160. 

Tlobates propinqua, capture of, 61. 

Indian tombs, ancient, 333. 

Infusoria, the influence of mass on the 
production of, 166; Professor Wyman 
on, 229; Englemann on, 310; vrigin 
of, 320; eggs of, 324. 

Insect destroying powder, 66. 

Insect enemies of the elm, 191. 

Insect flying under water, 225. 

INSECTS, injurious to the elm, 28; cap- 
tured by the Entomological Society, 
61; destruction of, by hard-billed 
birds, 386 ; feet of, 393. 

International Exhibition, gleanings from 
the, 64,148, 226; zoology of the, 160. 

Todine vapour, refraction of, 147. 

Todine, the reaction of, 391. 


JESUIT’S bark, 456. 
Julus maximus, 394; terrestris, 394. 


Koxrops in infusions of hay, 324. 
Kyanol, or aniline, 114. 


Laxns, Ramsay on the glacial origin of, 
228. 

Lama in Australia, 163. 

Lamont’s new theory of atmospheric 
vapour, 368. 

Lamprey, the sea, 411. 

Lamprey pie, ancient customs concern- 
ing, 416. 

Landscape art ,123. 


Language of animals, 21. 

Larva of insects, 99. 

Lassell on an annular nebule, 353. 
Leech, cocoons of the, 356. 

Leech-lore, 354. 

Lepralia, examples of marine, 343. 
Leptis, foot of, 396. 

Levant madder, 111. 

Life in the deep sea, 284. 

Life, organization and, 183. 

Light, zodiacal, 390. 

Linnean society, 468. 

Liparis dispar, virgin generations of, 105. 
Live animals in the Exhibition, 226. 
Lizards of the secondary rocks, 443. 
Long spectrum of electric light, 309. 
Loxa bark, or quinaquina, 454. 
Lutanist competing with nightingales,21. 


MacRoRHINtS proboscideus, 161. 
Madder orange, 113. 

Madder, 111; improvement of the 
colouring properties of, 113. 
Magnetic perturbations andauroras, 469. 
Magnetic needle, perturbations of, 39. 
Mammalia, development of the egg 
of, 98. 

Mangelia, 79. 

Manna, how formed, 91. 

Mars, Secchi on, 472; opposition of, 
131. 

Marsupial animals, 97. 

Mauve dye, 115. 

Meduse, jelly-fish, 101. 


| Membranipora membranacea, marine 


architects, 343. 

Metamorphosis of insects, 99. 

Meteoric stone of Chassigny, 390. 

Meteorological observations made at the 
Kew observatory, 46, 292. 

Meteor seen on the 29th November, 
1862, 422. 

Micro-photographs, Dagron’s, 229. 

Microscorr, the eye and the, 427; 
lamps for the, 429; Warrington’s 
portable, 349 ; Carpenter on the, 348; 
hints to beginners with the, 243. 

Microscopic objects, arrangement for 
carrying, 391. 

Microscopic printing and writing, size 
of, 470. 

Microscopic writing, engraving, and 
printing, 298. 

Microscopy. — Microscopic diamond 

writing, 143; photographic delinea- 

tion of microscopic objects, 158 ; 

hints to beginners, 245 ; microscopic 

writing, engraving, and printing, 298 ; 

microscopic vertebrata, 310, 471 ; mi- 

eroscopic address cards, 312; fish-hook 

spicule, 312; Carpenter on the mi- 


Index. 


eroscope, 348; the feet of insects, 
393 ; the eye and the microscope, 427. 

Midnight, birds which sing at, 19. 

Migration, 25; mysteries of, 25. 

Minerals, analysis of new, in the Exhi- 
bition, 144. 

Minstrels of the summer, 18. 

Minute vertebrate, supposed, 471. 

Molluscoida, geneagenesis of, 104. 

Moon, the, 57, 461; Mr. Lassell and 
the, 148; Delarue’s photographs of 
the, 148. 

Moonlight nights, birds which sing 
during, 19. 

Moss destroyed by fungi, 9. 

Moth of Procession caterpillar, 127. 

Mouth of the lamprey, 414. 

Murena fluviatilis, the river murzena, 
413, 

Mushroom sugar, 91. 

Music of birds, 20. 

Myrmidonia Haworthii, captured by the 
Entomological Society, 61. 


NapuTna, 114. 

Natica monilifera, 81. 

Nature in Southern Peru, aspects of, 331. 

Naucrates, remora, or echencis, popular 
errors respecting, 412. 

Nebulez, 310; Gautier on, 418. 

Nectar in flowers, 92. 

Nectria muscivora, spores of, 10. 

Neottia spiralis, 195. 

Nereis, annelid, 81. 

Nerve force, velocity of, 392. 

Nerves, distribution of, 148. 

Nerves, Claude Bernard on vascular and 
calorific, 230. 

New Forest, birds in the, 19. 

New use of diamonds, 472. 

New Zealand, furs from, at the Exhi- 

bition, 162. 

Nightingale ; is it merry or sad? 22. 

Nightingales in suburban districts, 19. 

Nitrate of ammonia, production of, 68. 

Nitro-benzole, 114. 

Nolella stipata, 343. 

Nubia, filagree ornaments from, 65. 


OccULTATIONS, 60, 139, 299, 376, 464. 

Oceanic hydrozoa, 362. 

Ophiolepis texturata, 78. 

Ophiucus, stars of, 56. 

Optical experiment, 148. 

Organization and life, 183. 

Origin of animals, 95. 

Orleans mode of making vinegar, 130. 

Ornitholites in tertiary deposits, 314. 

Ornithological poverty of suburban dis- 
tricts, supposed, 19. 

Orthagoriscus taken on the Fifeshire 
coast, 86. 


A77 


Orthoptera eaten by Birds of Paradise, 
70. 

Orycteropus Capensis, tooth of, 389. 

Ossified synchondrosis of the skull of 
giraffe, 16. 

Overland route from Pekin, 468. 

Oviparous animals, eggs of, 96. 

Oxygenized water, 68, 470. 

Oxygen process, Webster’s, 389. 

Ozone produced by plants, 470. 


Pagurts Bernhardus, 78. 

Parabolic illumination, 430. 

Paradise, Birds of, 69; native method 
of procuring them, 71; erroneous 
statements respecting their geogra- 
phical distribution, 71. 

Paradisea apoda, 69. 

Paradisea Papuana, at the Zoological 
Gardens, 71. 

Paradisea rubra, feathers of, 73. 

Paradiseas, ornamental feathers of, 70. 

Parasites, moss, 8. 

Parasites of sunfish, 83. 

Parasitic crustacea, new group of, 67. 

Parthenogenesis, a particular case of 
geneagenesis, 107. 

Parthenogenesis, objections to, 105. 

Peat as fuel, 400. 

Pecten opercularis, 77. 

Pekin, overland route from, 468. 

Periosteal aponeurotic matrix of the 
skull of giraffe, 17. 

Periosteum, fowl with black, 472. 

Peru, aspects of nature in Southern, 331. 

Peru, table-land of, 336. 

Peruvian bark-trees and their 
plantation, 452. 

Peruvian bark, organic constituents of, 
456. 

Phasmide found in the stomach of Birds 
of Paradise, 70. 

Phocide, 161. 

Phoccena communis, porpoise, 161. 

Phosphorized copper and brass, 66. 

Photographic transparency of bodies, 
309. 

Photographic delineation of microscopic 
objects, 158. 

Physalia pelagica, Portuguese man-of- 
war, 234. 

Physalia, structure and habits of, 362. 

Picrate of aniline, 230. 

Pigeon flying, 26. 

Pigeon flying from balloon, 307. 

Pinnotheres pisum (pea crab), 79. 

Pipeclay used for the adulteration of 
honey, 95. 

Planets, circumpolar, 390. 

Planet, new, 311. 

Plants most attractive to bees, 93. 


trans- 


478 


Plants, ozone produced by, 470. 

Plaster of Paris used for the adultera- 
tion of honey, 95. 

Platinocyanide of ammonia, 68; of 
magnesium, 389. 

Pleurosigma hippocampus, 433. 

Plumatella, statoblasts of a, 271. 

Pneumatocyst of Physalia, 363. 

Poisonous caterpillars, 124. 

Poisonous hairs of caterpillars, 126. 

Polyps, medusee of hydroid, 471. 

Polytrichum, capsules of, 8. 

Polyzoa, nervous system of, 67. 

Porpoise, 161. 

Portable microscope, Warrington’s, 349. 

Portunus marmorevs, 77. 

Potash from the animal kingdom, 391. 

Principles which should guide an artist 
in dealing with the repulsive and 
ugly, 119. 

Proboscis of honey bee, 90. 

Proceedings of learned societies, GO, 
225, 305, 384, 465. 

Products of the whale fishery, 11. 

Primage and leakage, causes of the 
waste of heat, 403. 

Printing, size of microscopic, 470. 

Pseudo-ceratophorus epiphyses of giraffe, 
18. 

Pseudopodia of the rhizopods, 471. 

Pterodactyle brevirostris, 447; longi- 
rostris, 447 ; crassirostris, 447 ; Sedg- 
wickii, 451; Cuvierii, 451 ; compressi- 
rostris, 451. 

Pulex irritans, leg of, 397, 

Purkinje vesicle, 107. 

Purpurine, or madder purple, 113. 

Pyramids, age of the, 469. 


QUATREFAGES’ metamphoses de I’:omme 
et des animaux, 95. 

Quetelet on the electricity of the air, 408. 

Quinaquina, or Loxa bark, 454. 

Quinine, discovery of, 456. 


RaDrATA, reproductive arrangements of, 
105. 

Radiation of heat, 404. 

Raised beaches of Scotland, 60. 

Ramsay on the glacial origin oflakes, 228, 

Raphides, formation of, 392. 

Rasal Gjathi, 55. 

Remora, popular superstitions respect- 
ing, 412. 

Resting eggs, or statoblasts of a pluma- 
tella, 271. 

Rhamphorhynchus Gemmingii, 447. 

Rhizopoda, pseudopodia of, 471. 

Ring-ousel in the New Forest, 19. 

one tile recently found in Leicester, 

bie ‘ 


Index. 


Royal Geographical Society, 386, 468. 
Royal Institution, 63. 

Royal Society, 388. 

Royal Astronomical Society, 465. 
Rubia tinctorum, madder plant, 111. 


SABELLA, 81. 

Sable furs at the Exhibition, 162. 

Salmon, history of the, 188. 

Salpze, marine molluses, 100. 

Satellite of Venus, the supposed, 469. 

Scolytus destructor, 30. 

Sea-lamprey, 411. 

Sealskin in the Exhibition, 161. 

neo on the second comet of 1862, 
471. 

Secchi on Mars, 472. 

Selection of subjects by artists, import- 
ance of, 120. 

Semeroptera Wallacii, 72. 

Sensitive plates for micro-photographs, 
159. 

Sepiola Atlantica, cuttle-fish, 81. 

Septoria thecicola, spores of, 9. 

Serpentis, 56. 

Serpula contorluplicata, 342. 

Shale, 109. 

Shales, supply of, 110. 

Siberia, furs from, at Exhibition, 162. 

Side silver reflector for microscope, 431. 

Silicon and hydrogen compound, 387. 

Simulium elegans, tibia of, 396. 

Singing machine, 227. 

Size of microscopic printing and writing, 
470. 

Slate, alum, 109. 

Snails, temperature of, 146. 

Snake, discovery of a new British, 387. 

Star finding, 36. 

STARS, DOUBLE, in Hercules, Serpens, 
Ophiucus, Canes Venatici, Cassiopea, 
54; Bootes, Corona Borealis, Her- 
cules, Ophiucus, Serpens, and Capri- 
cornus, 183; Lyra, Cygnus, Draco, 
299; Cygnus, Delphinus, Andromeda, 
Aquarius, Pegasus, Aries, Triangu- 
lum, 370. 

Stenopteryx hirundinis, legs of, 396. 

Stenorynchus phalingium, 76. 

Submarine architecture, 339. 

Summer afternoon by the sea, 149. 

Summer, minstrels of the, 18. 

Sun, determining the distance of the, 
312. 

Sunfish, the, as a host, 82. 

Supposed minute vertebrate, 471. 

Supposed satellite of Venus, 469. 

Solar eclipse, Delarue’s photographs of 
the, 226. 

Solaster papposa, sun star, 79. 

Solubility, experiments in, 147. 


Index. 


Song birds found near the dwellings of 
man, 20; call-notes of, what do they 
mean ? 21. 

Species, De Candolle on, 471. 

Spectrum analysis, Plucker on, 265. 

Spheroidal liquids, temperature of, 
229. 

Spheria emperigonia, spores of, 9. 

Spider, new, from Cochin China, 311. 

Spiranthes aufumnalis, ladies’ tresses 
195. 

Spontaneously inflammable gaseous 
compound of silicon and hydrogen, 
387. 

Squille, 80. 

Storm of the 19th Feb., 1860, 410. 

Sugar as a polariscope object, 92. 

Sulphuretted hydrogen, experiment 
with, 472. 

Swallows hybernating under pools, 25. 

Synchondrosial ossification of the skull 
of giraffe, 17. 

Syrphide, legs of, 397. 


TapEworM, 84; compound of several 
individuals, 83; different names of 
the, 85 ; organization of the, 86. 

Tasmanian Court of the Exhibition, 161. 

Taste in art, 116. 

Teeth of lamprey, 417. 

Telegraphic wires, effects of auroras 
upon, 39. 

Telescopes, new eyepiece for, 62. 

Temperature and vegetation, 469. 

Teredo, ege of, 99. 

Terrestrial currents, 39. 

Thallium, the new metal, 43. 

Thermometer, a new application of 
the, 231. 

Thrushes singing at night, 19. 

Thunderstorms, 410. 

- Tipule, claws of, 396. 

Titan, transit of the shadow of, 52. 

Tobacco smoking and Angina pectoris, 
66. 

Tomopteris, annelid, 149. 

Transformation of animals, 95. 

Trichecephalus affinis (whip worm), 
325. 

Triton, 79. 

Trochus, or “Top,” 79. 

Tropical sunset, 335. 

Tubularia, development of, 392. 

Turkey red extracted from Rubia Man- 
jista, 111. 


479 


Turmeric used for the adulteration of 
honey, 95. 


URASTER RUBENS, croas-fish, 80. 
Utilization of waste tin plate, 65. 


Vacuo, burning gunpowder in, 228. 
Vanessa urtica, scales of, 433. 
Variable nebula, 310. 

Vascular fasciculi, form of, in certain 
British ferns, 468. 
Vegetable morphology, 

tration of, 42. 
Vegetables, rapid growth in high lati- 
tudes, 65. 
Vegetation and temperature, 469. 
Venus, the supposed satellite of, 469. 
Vertebrata, microscopic, 310. 
Vertebrate, supposed minute, 471. 
Vesuvius, Daubeny on the last erup- 
tion of, 385. 
Vicuna, its introduction into Australia, 
163. 
Vinegar making, new process of, 128. 
Vitellus of viviparous animals, 96. 
Voleanic hair, 472. 
Volvox globator, 351. 


curious illus- 


WAGNER’S spot of eggs, 107. 
Warrington’s portable microscope, 349. 
Water-ousel in the New Forest, 19. 
Water, oxygenized, 68, 470. 

Webster’s oxygen process, 389. 

Whale fishery, 161. 

Whip-worms, 325. 

Wind, hourly movement of the, as re- 
corded by Robinson’s anemometer, 
AZ, 49, 51, 293, 295, 297. 

Wood as fuel, 398. 

Worms, geneagenesis of, 104. 

Wrens singing at night, 19. 

Writing, size of microscopic, 470. 

Wroxeter, the distorted skuils of, 309. 


XYLOPHAGOUS insects, 54. 
cited on 


YarRReELL’s British fishes, 
Gymnetrus, 3. 


ZovIACAL LIGHT, 390. 

Zoological Society, 387. 

Zoology of the International Hxhibi- 
tion, 160. 

Zooteira religata, 311. 


480 


Index. 


ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOURS. 


Caradisea papuana . 
Banks’s Oarfish 
Comet 2, 1862 . 
Physalia pelagica . 


PAGE 


sae ie ae 
1 

6 6 aly) 

. 233 


Sea lamprey . 


third or mesial horn 
Tetrarhynchus reptans 


Ribband fishes . 
Moss parasites . 
Horn of giraffe . 
Scolytus destructor 
Star-finder c 
Vegetable mor pholog y 
Shadow of Titan 
Poisonous caterpillars. 
Hydraulic illusions . 
Devil fish of Jamaica . 
Inscribed Roman tile . 
Spiranthes Autumnalis 


“168, 170, 176 


TINTED PLATES. 
Skull of young giraffe, showing the 


Pees VOu 


PAGE 

Plumatella emerging from stato- 
blasts 4 seen te 

Feathered fossil ‘Reon Solenhotent 5 BR 

Trichocephalus affinis. . . . . 820 

Se aly 
Tomopteris onisciformis . . 149 
Meet of insects ...... S06 save 


ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 


3 2 

9, 10, 11 
5 USS 
30, 31 

5 aL 

- 42 

54 

25, 5, 197 
‘re 14.2 


fe 
ae 


Comet 2, 1862, 199, 211, 212, 215, 

216, 218, 219 
Fungus foot of India 252, 253, 255, 256 
Whip-worm . 5g Gu) 
Bottle with encrustationsof s: ser pulze 340 


Electricity of the air . - 409 
Mouth of Petromyzon marinus . 415 
Meteor of Noy. 27, 1862. . 424 


Pterodactyles from ‘the lithogr aphic 
limestone. . . » 0. e446 
Chincona aoadenniaan, . 455 


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